Artistic Intricacies
by ParadoxBattleZone
Summary: When aspiring doujin artist Hiyori Tamura losses her will to continue her work, she sees her peers as a new source of inspiration. She begins to date her many friends to gain said inspiration, but she unintentionally causes heartbreak among one friend...
1. Konata

Chapter 1

The gentle wind hissed through the supple petals of the sakura trees. With each sway of their branches, more and more pedals would break free and dance toward the ground. Under one tree in particular, the pedals would fall and land on the graceful soldiers of a certain young girl. The pedals that landed on her hair seemed to disappear upon contact (the strands of hair being the same color of pink.)

It was here she had waited for many minutes, her jade eyes fixed onto her feet. It was only when she heard approaching footsteps from her right did she lift her gaze to its source. Just as she had promised, her friend from school, a taller sempai with short black hair, came running over, waving her hand at the pink haired girl.

Before she could speak, the sempai held a hand up at her, allowing herself to catch her breath after running such a distance. After a few minutes of hard panting, the sempai finally forced herself to stand straight and look the other in her eyes.

"… You asked me to come here?" the pink haired kouhai asked in a nervous whisper.

"Y-Yeah," the other replied with caution. "I… wanted to tell you something. It's easier to say here, since there aren't a lot of people here."

"… What did you want to say?"

"… Umm… You see… I think I… I think I love you."

In that instant, the emotions that entered through the kouhai's heart were those of… of…

_No, this won't do. Damn, why can't I get past the confession in these stories? Maybe if I try a different situation?..._

Grabbing her sempai by her right wrist, the kouhai pulled her friend behind her at a near running pace, tugging her through the crowded hallways of their school. Reaching a secluded spot beneath a stairwell, she felt as if she could express herself here.

"What's going on?" asked the sempai. "I have class in a few minutes and it's on the other side of the school _now_. What is it you wanted to say?"

Taking a pause, the kouhai looked upward into her friend's eyes. "S-Sampai," she stuttered, "I… I love you."

_No, **this** won't do **either!** I'm just describing actions and not portraying the emotions very well at all. Let's try one more time…_

Sitting across her sempai at the lunch table, the kohai desperately wished to say what was on her mind. Lifting her gaze from her bento, the sempai in question noticed that her friend had barely touched hers; everything was undisturbed and in exactly the same place as it was when it was opened.

"Is something wrong?" she asked her pink haired friend.

"… S-Sempai… I think I-"

_No, no, NO! This is all crap! What the hell is wrong with me? Why can't I get this right!_

-o0o-

With her train of thought officially broken, the tapping of her mechanical pencil against the blank sheet of paper in front of her grew ever louder. In the darkness of her room, the only source of light there was came from her desk lamp, which shown its spotlight on the blank piece of paper. Unbeknownst to her, in the midst of her work, Hiyori had spent the past _hour_ in this same position, riddled in deep thought, thoughts that could be considered as both random and unfinished.

Being an aspiring doujin writer and artist, Hiyori needed but two things to create successful pieces of work. One of which was the ability to create respectable and convincing visuals. In _this_ field Hiyori was undoubtedly skilled. She had received praise from the drawings and sketches she had shown her friends (or what her friends were able to sneak peeks at.) They were described in such adjectives as "incredible," "realistic," and "immaculate." Hiyori did, in no way, doubt her status as an _artist_.

However, _now_, and for the past few weeks, she was struggling in another category, the _second_ thing she needed to create a successful piece of doujin: a _story_, background with which to put together the relationship the two or more fictional characters had. It was in _this_ that Hiyori Tamura was struggling.

"_Damn it!_" she screamed at herself in her head, her eyes fixed upon the blank slate before her. "_Why is it so hard to think up a freakin story? I mean, it's not like I've had this problem before…_"

She, of course, was referring to the inspiration she formally had. On an almost daily basis, she need only attend school and watch the interactions of her other friend in order to gain ideas with which to draw and sketch. One pair of students, Yutaka Kobayakawa and Minami Iwasaki, provided a myriad of inspiration for Hiyori.

However, lately, such sources had seemed to lose their impact in the young artist's mind. What once gave her such simulation was now providing her with _nothing_.

"_What's going on with me?_" she continued to ponder as she rose from her desk and began pacing the length of her room back and forth. "_I use to get inspired **daily**, but nothing seems to work anymore!_" Walking past her window, she looked outside at the snowy night landscape painted before her. "_The weather is turning cold… Like my passion…_

_Maybe I need to change the way I gain my inspiration? It seems that watching from a distance isn't cutting it anymore. I need to take another step forward to further my work… But what does that mean? What **exactly **do I need to do?_"

Hiyori threw herself backwards onto her bed, her eyes now fixed onto the ceiling above her. "_What do **professional**__manga artists and writers do for inspiration? Well, in interviews, they usually say that they simply draw from personal experiences, from things from their past… I guess I'm sort of screwed in **that** department there. I mean, I usually write about girl/girl relationships, but I've never-_

_ Wait… Is **that** what I need to do? All the great writers and artists draw from their **personal** experiences, so does that mean I need to…_"

Stricken with a shooting feeling of fear, Hiyori shot herself upright from her bed, her hands now clutching the sides of her head. A cold sweat began to accumulate on her forehead. "_Do I need to… actually **have** that type of relationship… with another **girl?** I… I'm not sure I **can** do that! I've never even had a real **boyfriend** and now, if I'm ever going to get myself out of this writers block, I need to have a relationship with another **girl?**_"

Tamura looked back across her room, to the blank paper that sat atop the desk's surface. It was now as if the paper was mocking the young artist, existing as a constant reminder as to how she was failing herself.

"_… I guess there's no other alternative_," she self-concluded. "_If I'm ever going to further my passion, I need to **engage** in that which I write and draw about… But now the question is… Who do I do it with?_"

Reaching over to the nightstand next to her bed, Hiyori snatched her cell phone up and began to go through her contacts list. Next to each name was a tiny picture of the person (pictures she took with the phone's camera.) One by one, she began to contemplate her options, each one seemingly impossible than the last. That is until she brought the cursor over one friend in particular…

"_Konata Izumi… Well, I suppose she and I are the most in common. We both like anime. We both like manga. Heck, she even commented on some of my work… I suppose **she** wouldn't be a bad source to- UGH! What am I saying? I'm treating my friends like they were test subjects for some mad science experiment! Should I **really** be doing this? Using my friends for my own personal gain?_"

The blank paper continued to taunt Tamura with its very presence.

"_… I'm gonna do it_," Hiyori declared once more. "_Tomorrow, I'll ask Konata on… a date…_"

-o0o-

Throughout school the entire next day, the black haired artist's mind was mulling her plan. Though she forced herself to act normally throughout the day, in the very back of her thoughts, she could not rip from it the thought of "_I'm going to ask another girl out on a date_." When the final bell rang, she put her plan into action.

When school was let out, many students met in the courtyard in front of the front doors of Ryoo High. It was there, from across its length, that Tamura spotted Izumi in the midst of conversation between Kagami, her sister Tsukasa, and Miyuki. Just then, the group seemed to split up: Kagami and her sister walking off in one direction, Miyuki in another, and Konata walking off _alone_ in yet another direction.

"_Now's my chance,_" Hiyori said to herself.

With quickness in her step, Hiyori ran over to the unsuspecting otaku. Once within hearing distance, Tamura called out to her "Hey! Konata! Over here!"

Hearing her voice, Konata turned around and, putting on a grin, waved back. "Hey Hiyroi! What's up?"

The artist came to a stop before replying "Oh, n-nothing much." _Damn it. I say two words to the girl and I'm already nervous. This is gonna be harder than I thought._ "Hey, Konata, I wanted to ask you something."

"Like what?"

"Umm… You think we can, I don't know, hang out some time? I'd like to-"

"Finally show me the doujin you've been working on?" Konata finished with intense enthusiasm.

"No, nothing like tha- Wait, _what_?"

"Come on, pleeeease? You're always hiding it from everyone! I've seen a bit before and it was _awesome_! I wanna see more!"

"Uh…" _What should I say back? I **guess** it wouldn't hurt to let Konata see my projects. After all, she's more likely to appreciate it. Plus, if I want to get on her good side…_ "Sure, Konata," Hiyori finally replied, "I'll let you take a peek, but _first_, you have to hang out with me." _What the hell was **that?**_

"… So you'll let me look at your doujin in exchange for… a _date_?"

"AH! N-No! That's not what I-"

"Cause I _accept_!"

"I- It's not a date! It's-… You _do_?"

"Sure, why not? After all, it's not like a _real_ date, right?"

"… But you just agreed to it when you _yourself_ said it was a-"

"That's all water under the bridge. So, what are we gonna do?"

…_What **should** we do? Think, Hiyori, think. I need as much material as possible, so I guess what I can do is do whatever the other person wants… not matter how much I hate it…_

"Well," Tamura finally replied, "how about _you_ choose, Konata. You can take me wherever you want."

The instant that was said, the mother-of-all cat grins shot onto Izumi's face which, in turn, made Hiyori instantly regret her words. "_Anything_?" Konata repeated, putting intense emphasis on the word.

"… Yes," Tamura replied. "_Anything_ you want." _I hope she doesn't take it **too** seriously._

"Then I got the _perfect_ day for us," Konata declared. "So, when can we go?"

"How does tomorrow sound?"

"Sounds good. Met you at the station?" When Tamura nodded in reply, Izumi nodded back. "See you then, Hiyori!" And with a wave, Konata headed off toward the center of town (most likely to stop at Gamers, Hiyori thought to herself.)

-o0o-

Just as planned, after school was let out the next day, Hiyori awaited Konata's arrival at the foot of the stairwell at the train station. With every passing minute, Tamura began to worry as to what _exactly_ her blue haired otaku had in store for the both of them. When the station's clocks chimed that it was 15:00, Izumi arrived, still dressed in uniform (as was Hiyori.)

"YooHoo!" Konata greeted the artist from a distance, waving as she approached. "You ready?"

_Ready for what?_ "Uh, sure," she replied. "Kona-chan, where _exactly_ are you taking me today? I only have about 5000 yen so it can't be anything _too_ pricy."

"Oh, _frugal_ today, are we?" Izumi joked. "Don't worry, you'll have money when the day is done. Now let's go!" With Tamura following closely behind, Izumi, as she seemed to do yesterday, began to head in the direction of the town's center. Remembering that there were a few game and manga stores there, the artist made the quick assumption that they were heading there.

As it turns out, she was correct.

Their first stop was Gamers, which, despite its title, was a manga/anime store. Konata immediately upon entering began to rummage around the "New Releases" section. Hiyori looked through as well, asking the occasional question of "Is this good?" "Would you recommend _this_?" and other such questions. The pair left the store an hour later, Hiyori leaving with a plastic bag containing three manga issues. Konata left with no less than _three times_ that amount.

Their next stop was an arcade that Konata and her three other friends (Tsukasa, Kagami, and Mikuri) frequented. There, Izumi and Tamura engaged in a few rounds of a two person arcade fighter. The machines were set up in such a way that one people would man a screen placed on opposite sides.

It should go without saying that Hiyori stood no match against Konata's skill and, admitting defeat, she instead allowed the other attendants of the arcade to face off against the otaku. Tamura took great pleasure in watching giant, scary looking guys face off against Konata, lose to her, then check the other side of the machine to find that they had been bested by a tiny schoolgirl.

After a while of that and after leaving the arcade, Konata asked what would be an inevitable question. "So, when can we stop by _your_ house, Hiyori?"

"You just want to take a look at my drawings, don't you, Konata?" Tamura asked back, knowing all too well the answer.

"Heh heh, you know me well… So, can we?"

"I suppose so. Do you really want to leave _now_? We still have time to do some other stuff around here."

"Sorry, but I can't wait any longer. I _need_ to check it out. If I don't see it, I'll just _die_!"

"Alright, alright, _fine_. We'll go now." _Damn it, I knew this was gonna happen sooner or later…_

It was now Konata's turn to follow Hiyori. With her home not being a far distance from the downtown area, Tamura walked the distance to her home. As was the case in waiting for Konata's arrival, every step she took brought more and more anxiety into her heart, knowing that her doujin works, projects _originally_ intended for her eyes only, were about to be shown to another person.

Finally arriving at her home, the two (with Koanta adamant in her intentions) immediately headed to Hiyori's room. The second Konata stepped through the door, she once more dispensed with inevitable questions. "Quickly, where are they, Hiyori? Tell me! TELL ME!"

Voicing a relenting sigh, Tamura pointed a tentative finger to her desk. "They're in the top and middle drawers on the left. Please, try not to rip-"

Before she could even blink twice, Konata was already atop of Hiyroi's bed, lying flat on her stomach, and her nose buried into one of Tamura's sketchbooks. Next to her was a tall stack of her _other_ sketch notebooks. _Is this** all** she wanted to do today? Just look at my stuff? Well, I **did** agreed to it after all-_

"Hey, Hiyori," said Konata suddenly, showing Tamura a page in the book. "This girl kind of looks like Yutaka."

_SHIT!_

"Uh… I- I'm gonna get something to drink. Be right back." She quickly left the room, all the while suppressing the blood flow in her nose that was threatening to burst forth. _This girl is gonna be the death of me today. She just **had** to stumble on the ones of Yutaka, didn't she? Well, she won't be here for too much longer. Hang in there, Hiyori. You can do this. And the payoff will be more than worth it… I hope…_

Tamura returned to her room holding in her left hand a two liter bottle of an orange flavored drink and in her right hand two glasses. "Sorry, this was the only thing I ha-" Konata had not changed her position on Hiyori bed, but the expression on her face was _drastically_ different: a strong blush was plaster across Izumi's face and, even from the distance she stood from her, Hiyori could see visible sweat on her brow.

Noticing the _red_ cover on the sketchbook, Tamura instantly began to sweat as well. _Shit! She got into the **hardcore** stuff!_ Quickly putting the drink and glasses down on the ankle high table of her room, she rushed over to Konata and snatched the book right out of her hands.

"Hey!" Izumi exclaimed. "I was reading that!"

Tamura ignored her friend's protest and, putting the red book back into its respectable drawer, locked the drawer itself. "_That_ if for_ my_ eyes only," the artist explained.

"But it was awesome! Why wouldn't you let others see it?... It was because the two girls looked like Yutaka and Minami, right?"

"…"

"Thought so."

"W- Whatever. You gonna have a drink or what?"

Nodding in reply, Konata sat next to Hiyori at the aforementioned table: a tiny wooden furnishing with legs no more than a few inches high. The two poured a glass for themselves and Konata, who cunningly slipped one of Tamura's doujins past her, retrieved it from beneath her uniform shirt and opened it back up.

"What the- How did you-?" Noticing the book's color was _not_ red, Tamura relented. "Well, I guess you can look at _that_ one." What followed were a few minutes of silence, Konata being absorbed into the content of the sketchbook. Wishing to break the silence, Hiyori reach for her stereo's remote and turned it on, switching the radio to a popular music station.

A few seconds later, Konata asked a question. "So, Hiyori," she began, her green eyes unremoved from the pages "what were you trying to do today?"

"… Eh?" Tamura grunted back.

"Our date today." _Please don't call it that. _"No offence, but you don't seem like the kind of person to switch fields like that all of a sudden."

"Switch fields-? Hey! Just what are you trying to insinuate!"

"Nothing," Izumi replied casually. "I don't care if you like girls. Hell, I like Kagamin."

"I don't like gi- Wait, you _do_?"

"Sure… So, who do _you_ like, Hiyori? _Me?_"

"I _don't_ like girls, Konata!"

"Then what the date for?"

_… Dang it. I was hoping she wouldn't become wise to my plans, but it looks like she did just that. I guess I have no choice to but to tell her. _"It was for… research…" she finally replied.

Konata's eyes finally lifted from the pages and fell onto Hiyori's. "Research?" Izumi echoed.

"Y- Yeah. You see, I've been in a _huge_ slump with my work. I just wasn't getting enough personal experience to draw on, you know? How can I write about what I don't know, right?"

"Sure…"

"So… Sorry, Konata, but I kind of used you as test subject. I feel real crappy for saying that, but it's the truth. I never had this problem before, but lately, when writing the script for a new doujin or manga, whenever I got to the love confession part, I kept drawing blanks: How the characters react, what they're thinking… The last thing I wanted to do is give up on my work so… I was willing to do _anything_ to get more material… I'm sorry if I insulted you, Konata, but-"

"Hiyori?"

Hiyori turned her head to face Konata only to find her face was an inch away from hers. She opened her mouth to gasp but was cut short when Izumi leaned forward and pressed her lips against Tamura's. Her body turned to stone at that very moment: deathly pale stone. So, when Izumi leaned in further, Hiyori fell backwards, Konata falling forward at the same time. The artist suddenly found herself _beneath_ her otaku friend, their lips still connected.

The position was held for a few minutes before Konata lifted her face from Hiyori's. With a cat-like grin, Izumi asked the stunned girl "How's _that_ for material?"

The only sound that escaped Tamura's lips was a stifled gasp. A second later, a nosebleed caused twin trails of blood to fall from the artist's nostrils. Expecting this to happen, Konata retrieved from a pocket in her uniform a small handkerchief and handed it to Hiyori. "Here, use this."

Tamura broke herself from petrifaction and, accepting the handkerchief, dabbed the blood off her upper lip, all the while sitting herself up off the floor. Her voice was understandably weak (given her sudden shock.) "Uh… What was _that_ for?" she shakily asked.

"Just helping a friend out," Izumi replied playfully. "So, how do you feel?"

"… Weak… Confused…" The artist suddenly blushed. "… Exhilarated…"

"Well there you go!" Izumi exclaimed. "You had a problem portraying emotions, so I gave you them. So, did it help?"

"… Did it help? Did it _help?_... Actually… It _did_. All these sensations I'm feeling! I- I got to write this down!" Jumping up from the table and to her desk, Hiyori ripped out from a drawer her "Script" notebook. She quickly opened to a new page and began to write out her thoughts at a blistering speed. Some would joke that smoke could be seen rising from the page itself.

As the inspired writer inscribed her newly acquired emotions into her notebook, page after page, Konata walked over to the desk and, placing her hands on the back of the chair's headrest, peaked her head over Hiyori's left shoulder and read off the newly etched material. "Looks like that did a lot," Izumi mused aloud, all the while grinning.

"_That's_ for sure," Tamura replied, not lifting eyes nor pencil from the paper. "Thanks a lot, Konata! I got enough material for at least a _month_."

"… Maybe you can thank me _another_ way?"

The pencil ceased its movement. "… Huh?" Hiyori replied. A second later, she felt the arms that leaned on the headrest wrap around her chest and Konata's chin rest on her left shoulder.

"Oh I think you know what I mean." Konata said playfully.

"… _Another_ kiss?" Hiyori asked.

"Yep."

_… Well, I suppose she deserves it. She did help me out **a lot** today._ Slowly, Tamura rose from her chair and turned around to face her smiling friend. "Ok…" she whispered. Konata lifted herself onto her toes and Hiyori bent down slightly. The two leaned in forward once more and their lips touched. The same surge of emotions as before came flooding back to Tamura. When the touch lifted from each other once more, the artist was surprised to see that she didn't start to bleed from her nose.

"Uh, Hiyori," Konata suddenly spoke, "I have to get going. My dad will get pissed if I'm out too late. So… Happy drawing!"

"… Thanks," Tamura replied back with a smile.

As she watched her friend (?) walk out of her room, Hiyori wondered to herself if "helping a friend" was all that Konata intended with their first kiss. Was there more to it…?

-o0o-

With Konata Izumi's intervention, Hiyori found herself producing more doujin, drawings, and scripts than she ever thought possible. In a period of a week, she successfully cranked out a total of three fifty page notebooks of drawings, four full-length story scripts, and a countless number of sketches. Hiyori had never been more pleased with herself.

However, when _two_ weeks past, the young artist suddenly found herself back at square one: in a complete and utter slump. She came to this conclusion in the same exact place she had before: sitting at her desk, late at night, in the dark of her room.

_… Oh no. Don't tell me… I'm losing my inspiration **again?** B- But how can that be? After all that work I went through? Forcing myself to ask Konata out. After… we **kissed**…_

_ Does this mean… we have to kiss **again?

* * *

**_

**Author's Notes: **Ok, I'll admit, this story archetype is one that has been used before: Hiyori losses her passion in her work, she takes a bold step forawrd to regain it, and lemon/yuri/fluff/romance ensues. _Boooring_! However, the fics I've seen involving Hiyori and this type of plot have all been _really_ short oneshots and/or nothing of substantial length. And, if you know me, I don't write oneshots. So, _I'll_ take a crack at this and lets see if I can't create something of full length, ne?


	2. Kagami

Chapter 2

As it seemed the case before, Hiyori could not purge from her mind the thought of having to kiss Konata _twice_. Again, throughout school the next day, the artist's mind was fixated upon that one thought. When the final bell rang for that day, Hiyori set off into the congested hallways in search of her blue haired inspiration.

She found Konata once more in the courtyard in front of the school. She sat alone on a wooden bench, seemingly engrossed in a DS game. She didn't even notice Hiyori approach, but after a minute or so of standing in front of her, Hiyori finally got Izumi's attention by giving a loud clearing of her throat.

The otaku's eyes finally lifted, only to fall back down to the screen a second later. "Hi Hiyori," Konata greeted casually. "How's it going?"

The artist made a quick glance around her to make sure that no one was within hearing distance of her. Once she felt safe, Hiyori dispensed with what she had been waiting all day to tell Izumi. "Konata," she said, "we need to kiss again!"

This time, Konata _really_ stopped. She paused her game and looked Tamura back in her eyes. "Again?" she echoed.

"Yes, again!" she emphasized. "I was drawing and writing scripts like crazy for the past two weeks from the first time, but yesterday night, I just… crapped out! I got nothing again! I'm right back where I started!"

Izumi then turned off her DS, slipped it into a pocket in her coat, and stood up from the bench. The grin that now plastered her face was unmistakable. "So, you need more _inspiration_, is that it?" she asked playfully.

"… Y- Yeah," Tamura replied. "Would it be ok if you… came over today?"

Konata thought for a brief second before replying "Sure. Whenever you're ready to leave, Hiyori."

"Ok… Well, what about Kagami and the others? Won't they wonder where you are?"

"Eh, I'll text them and tell them I got more important things to do. I don't think they'll mind. Now come on! Let's get inspired!"

-o0o-

Hiyori and Konata found themselves in a familiar position: sitting adjacent from each other, in Hiyori's room, at her short wooden table. Only _this_ time, there was no juice (per se.) For the past few minutes they had been sitting silently. While the look on Hiyori's face was showing clear and understandable trepidation, Konata seemed to be more impatient in her facial expressions.

"Ready yet?" Konata asked (again.)

"Uh… Just a few more seconds," Tamura replied as she shifted uncomfortably on her legs.

"But you had _five minutes_ already. When the hell are you going to be ready?"

_She has a point. I can't stall like this forever, especially since my inspiration has long been dried up. You can do this, Hiyori. You already did it **twice**, so a third time shouldn't be **that** hard…_

"Ok, I'm ready," Hiyroi finally declared.

The two girls pivoted themselves on their legs until they both faced each other. Inch by inch, they then scooted themselves forward. Reaching a point where their knees were a hair's length from touching, Hiyori halted. _Konata_, however, kept moving forward. She continued forward and brought herself closer to Tamura. The blue haired girl got _so _close that her left leg wedged itself between Tamura's warm thighs, her left knee becoming _dangerously_ close to the artist's panties. The otaku even went so far as to sit herself onto Hiyori's left leg.

Tamura voiced a soft wince at the touch of Izumi's unmentionables against her skin.

With her friend practically sitting on her, Hiyori was now stuck in place. _Now or never…_ In unison, the two inched their faces closer and closer until their lips finally met. Their first two kisses together were more along the lines of "Konata kissing Hiyori," but today, they were kissing _each other_. Their bond of skin lasted for a few minutes.

But then, when Hiyori suddenly felt the intrusion of Izumi's tongue, the artist immediately reared her head back and removed herself from beneath Konata. "Ok, we are _not_ doing that yet!" she threatened.

Izumi giggled at how Hiyori reacted to her advance. "Fine fine," she laughed, "I won't do that if you don't want me to… Wait, you said 'Yet.' Does that mean you might change your mind?"

"… We'll see," Tamura simply replied.

"So? How do you feel? Got your mojo back?"

Hiyori had to actually think about it, which already wasn't good sign. After a few seconds of thought, she replied back with a surprised "… _No_. I… I don't feel _anything_!"

"What, so our kiss meant _nothing _to you?" Konata said back in a mock pout. "Now I'm _hurt_."

"T-That's not what I meant, Konata. I… I _do_ like kissing you," she said, her face now regaining a blush, "it's just… I'm not getting the inspirational boost like I did before. I wonder what's going on…"

Hearing the genuine worry in Hiyori's voice, Konata began to scratch the imaginary beard on her chin as she put the matter to thought. A few moments later, she came up with a conclusion. "Maybe you need inspiration from _another_ source?" she theorized.

"… _Another_?" Hiyori repeated with dread in her tone. "I have to get inspiration from someone _else_?"

"It would seem that way, but the question is… Who to go after _now_?"

B-But what about you, Konata? Are you comfortable with me going after other woman? I mean, now that we're-"

"Now that we're _what_?" Izumi inquired.

"… Together," Tamura finished. "Now that we're _together_, would you really be ok with me going after others?"

"Nah, I'm cool with it. I know you like me the best. After all, you _did_ choose me first for a reason, right?"

_… She's right. I **did** choose her first for a reason. We seemed the most compatible… I guess it's because I kind of… **love** her…?_

"So," Konata continued as she scooted herself closer to Hiyori's side, "who do you think you should go after next?"

"I'm not sure," the artist replied. Reaching into a pocket, she retrieved her cell phone once more and began to scroll through the contact's list, Konata peaking on by leaning her lead on Tamura's right shoulder. When the cursor hit Minami Iwasaki, Konata's eyes lit up. "Oh, what about Minami-chan?" she exclaimed.

"No!" Hiyori shot back in an instant, taking the otaku off guard. "Sorry, but, I mean, _you've_ seen how she and Yutaka act together, right?"

"Oh yeah. It's like those two are soul mates the way they act around each other, I swear!"

"Exactly. Well, I don't want to ruin what they have, so she and your cousin are _off_ the list, ok?"

"Understood… But what about _her_?" Izumi aimed a finger at the name a few bars down from Yutaka: Kagami Hiiragi.

"Kagami?" Tamura asked. "But don't _you_ like her?"

"Yeah, but Kagami's a tsundere type character. That's a wealth of information to draw on right there!"

"Hmm… I suppose you're right… Ok, I'll go for Kagami next."

Expelling an "Awesome," Konata further her excitement by practically _falling_ onto Hiyori's shoulder and wrapping her arms around her chest. As Hiyori continued to shuffle uncomfortably in place, she suddenly spoke aloud a thought that had just arisen in her head. "Why haven't I been having nosebleeds today?"

"Maybe," Konata answered, "it's because the initial shock of our kiss from yesterday made you immune to having then… _that_, or it means we're meant for each other."

_… I think I prefer that last one…_

-o0o-

During study periods, students of Ryoo High had to return to their homerooms. Since Kagami shared a homeroom with Hiyori, this made the artist's task of locating her easy. Her only problem was that during these study periods (especially under the enforcement of their homeroom teacher), students were _not_ allowed to socialize; only to study.

Tamura could see Kagami sitting two rows in front of her and two rows to her right. The twin tailed student seemed rather enveloped in her work. _Damn, she's right there and I can't talk to her… Actually, that wouldn't be what I want. Asking to go hang out in front of the whole class like that would be embarrassing. I guess I'll have to wait for the be-_

The P.A system chimed the familiar tones and, in near unison, students began to rise from their seats and make for the door. Caught off guard, Hiyori struggled to pack up her supplies and get herself up from her desk. Finally rising to her feet, the elder Hiiragi had just left the room through the door in the front.

With ambition fueling her, Hiyori slipped her way past the other students to get herself into the hallway. Tamura whipped her head around in both directions in search of Kagami. Finally seeing her lavender head of hair peeking from the sea of heads, Hiyori called out her name. "Kagami! Wait up!"

At the sound of hearing her name yelled, the elder Hiiragi whipped herself around in a panic, turning to the source of the noise. But when she found that it was Hiyori that called her name, Kagami gave a sigh of relieve. "Jeez, Hiyori, you scared me," she said, all they while giving an amused grin.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Tamura quickly apologized as she approached her target. "I didn't mean to yell, but I needed to get your attention _somehow_. You see, I wanted to ask you something."

"Oh? What's that?"

_Ok, this should be simple. It's a date, but you can't **say** it's one (for obvious reasons.)_ "Just wanted to know if you can hang out sometime?"

"Hang out?" Kagami repeated. "I guess so. You have something in mind?"

_CRAP! I didn't think this through far enough! Now she's expecting me to suggest a place to go. What should I say? Let me thing: it's winter… cold outside… things to do **in** the cold…_

"Ice skating!" Hiyori suddenly blurted out. "Wanna go ice skating?"

Tamura fully expected Kagami to reject the plan but, much to her surprise, her eyes lit up in an instant. "Ice skating?" Kagami repeated with rising enthusiasm. "Really? Man, I haven't done that in _years_! Sure, that sounds like fun! When can we go?"

"… Tomorrow?" Hiyori suggested.

"Sure- Hey, would it ok if Tsukasa comes along as well? She'll _really_ want to go as well."

Without even _thinking_, Tamura replied "Sure."

"Then we'll meet at the ice rink at around… 15:00 tomorrow then?" Kagami then asked. When she received a slow nod in reply, Kagami left, grinning an excited smile and leaving Hiyori with the words "Great! See you then!"

Tamura watched as her new date headed off down the hallway. In the very depth of her stomach, a sudden feeling of dread and anxiety had come to a boil within her.

_ … What the hell was I **thinking?** What the hell did I suggest **that **for? I don't know **how** to ice skate!_

-o0o-

Hiyori arrived at the outdoor skating rink earlier than Kagami and Tsukasa. As she sat atop a bench directly adjacent to a door entering the rink itself, awaiting the sisters' arrival, she continued to tell herself within her head how much of an **_idiot_** she was for suggest going to an ice skating rink. _I mean, sure, Kagami got excited about going here, but I've never ice skated in my life! They're probably light-years ahead of me in experience._ She glanced to her right, to the ugly brown rental skated that sat next to her. _Well, I guess we'll be equal in **one** respect: shitty skates._

Lift her gaze forward, she was met with the distant sight of Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi walking over to her, waving. What the artist noticed next about them sent her _further_ into despair: each of them held on one hand a pair of their _own_ ice skates.

_They have their **own** skates? Great. Just great. Now they'll **really** get suspicious as to why I chose this place._ Nevertheless, once the two got close, Hiyori forced herself to her feet and greet them with a warm "Hey guys."

"Thanks for letting me come along, Hiyori-chan," Tsukasa thanked the bespectacled girl. "It's been so long since Onee-chan and I have skated, so when she brought it up, I got really happy."

"Yeah," added Kagami. "She wouldn't stop talking about all day yesterday. Thanks again for letting Tsukasa tag alone."

"No problem… I see you have your own skates?"

"Oh, yeah. Dad bought us each a pair last year for Christmas. Did you bring your pair, Hiyori?"

_Crap, they think I'm as into ice skating as they are! I'm gonna look like an idiot with my rentals…_ "Actually," Tamura replied, "I… accidently left them at home. I got these rentals instead," she explained, pointing to the brown hunks of crap that still sat atop the bench.

Kagami glanced at the rentals and, in response, gave a casual shrug of her shoulders. "Eh, that's ok. You can bring your skate the next time we go."

_Yeah, if there **is** a next time, granted I don't get myself killed **today**…_

As the Hiiragi sisters headed toward the rink ahead of Hiyori, she sat back down on the bench and begrudgingly put on her rental skates. Wouldn't you know it; they hurt the artist's feet. _It's like putting on shoes made of **rocks**._ With the laces tightened, she balanced herself on shaking legs and, using a banister for support, opened the door to the rink and took her first step inside.

One step was all it took for Tamura to slip and fall flat on her ass, sending a shooting pain up the length of her spine. It took all her strength to keep her from yelling. Seeing this, Kagami (who skated _perfectly_, much to Hiyori's irk,) skated over to help her friend up. "Are you ok?" she immediately asked, her tone of genuine worry. "It looked like it hurt."

"It _did_," Hiyori said back, managing to make her tone a joking one. "I guess it's been a while since I last skated. I might have unlearned it."

"That's ok," Kagami reassured Tamura. "Tsukasa has been ice skating for as long as I have and she _still_ has trouble form time to time." Speaking of which, Hiyori spotted the sister in question on the opposite side of the ring, shakily moving forward with the rest of the traffic. "Do you need any help?" Kagami then asked.

"N- No," Hiyori replied. "I think I'll just stick to the edge and try to remember how to do this again. Go ahead and skate. Don't let me hold you back."

Give a nervous "Ok…" Kagami did as Tamura advised and she sped off to rejoin her sister in the rink. _Yeah, I'm being modest and yet what I **really** need is noob lessons for these things! It's like trying to walk on ice with ice shoes!_

Hiyori, use the handrail that ran along the entire length of the rink's wall _extensively_, she stumbled and floundered herself forward, making as much forward movement as a heavily encumbered snail. It seemed like with every other step she took the artist fell over, landing on nearly every part of her body. However, she took extra caution to protect her left hand; her _artist's _hand.

After the Hiiragi sisters passed the now battered and exhausted Hiyori around the rink for the _fourth_ time, Kagami finally decided to find out why her friend was doing so badly. Telling Tsukasa to go on ahead, Kagami skated over to her friend and, seeing as how she had just fallen, helped her to her feet.

"What's up with you?" the elder sister asked Hiyori. "Even by _now_ you should have regained _some_ skill."

_Damn, she's getting suspicious. What should I do? Keep up the act? But for how long will **that** hold up for?... I guess I have no choice but to come clean._

"Ok," Hiyori began, "I relent! I can't take falling on my ass any longer!... Kagami, I've never ice skated _ever_. This is my first time trying it."

In response to this revelation, the twin tailed girl raised a curious eyebrow to Tamura. "Not _ever_?" she asked, to which she received a nod back. "You've never ice skated before in your life… and yet you chose to take Tsukasa and I here anyways?"

"I guess…"

"Hiyori… That's really nice of you to do! You didn't have to risk hurting yourself for Tsukasa's and _my_ sake." **_Now_**_ she tells me_. "So, you've _never_ ice skated before, Hiyori?"

"Not once," she replied.

"Well, if you want, I can _teach_ you."

_Now **who's **taking** who** out? Ugh, forget it. If I act any more modest, I start breaking bones, plus I'm too sore to reject any help._ "Sure," Hiyori finally replied.

Kagami reached out with her right arm and, standing to the artist's left, grasped onto her left shoulder. She then propelled herself and Hiyori forward, taking her around the bend in the rink until they both stopped. A long straight path stood before the two of them. "We'll start here," Kagami began.

"Ok, first off, Hiyori, you're trying to _walk_ on the ice, which is impossible. Take a look at both of our skates." Tamura looked down at the skates blades and noticed the obvious difference: while Hiyori's were a solid uniform edge, Kagami's had a saw-like edge neat the front. "With _my_ skates," Kagami continued, "you can _sort of_ walk in them, but even so, that's not how you are suppose to do it. Now, watch what I do."

With her hand still on Hiyori's shoulder, Kagami demonstrated the proper way of skating by making one push forward. Turning her right skate to the right, the blade making a forty-five degree angle, she propelled herself and Tamura forward a few feet before slowing back down to a stop.

"You use the resistance of the sideways blade on the ice to push off on. You just keep doing that, while alternating feet, and there you go! Now you try."

Tamura heaved a nervous sigh before attempting to mimic what Kagami did. She brought her left skate to the appropriate angle and, just as instructed, pushed off from it. Her first attempt did not go as she had imagined. Instead of balancing her weight on her _right _skate, it slipped forward and out from underneath her, causing the artist to fall to the ice's surface, her legs spreading apart into a full split.

Tamura gasped when she felt cloth between her thighs rip.

Immediately, Kagami helped her friend back to her feet. "Oops," she said, "I guess I forgot to mention that you need to lean forward onto the opposite skate. Ok, try again."

_Great. Not only am I sore and most likely bruised over my entire body, I just ripped my freakin underwear! Could this day get any wor-? No, don't ask yourself that. When characters ask that in television show, something bad **always** happens to them. Cliché, yes, but it **always** happens._

And so, Hiyori attempted once more to recreate Hiiragi's demonstration and, much to her own surprise, Hiyori suddenly found herself gliding forward across the ice's surface. Her bosom now filled with excitement, she attempted to push off with her _right _foot while still moving forward. She slipped, but thankfully the guardrail was just within reach.

Kagami, Tamura, and Tsukasa spent the next few hours in the rink, Hiyori desperately trying to improve her skating abilities. When they all decided to call it quits for the day, the Hiiragi sisters invited Hiyori to go back to their house. She, naturally, accepted.

The artist left the rink that day with, among her _other_ sores and pains, an _incredibly_ sore ass.

-o0o-

Hiyori, upon entering Kagami's room (with Kagami and Tsukasa entering before her), threw herself onto a cushion that sat next to a low table (a table that reminded her on the one _she_ owned.) Every muscle and pour of her skin was screaming in pain from the day's events.

"Tired?" Kagami lightheartedly asked her bespectacled friend as she regarded her defeated posture.

"I am _never _ice skating _again_," Hiyori groaned back, still trying to keep cheerful _herself_ after the day's events.

As Kagami retrieved a manga book from a shelf, there came a light knock at the door. It opened a second later and the Hiiragi sisters' mother, Miki, poked her head through. Hiyori was personally taken back at how beautiful and trim-figured she was (given that she had given birth to _four_ daughters.)

"Hello," she greeted with a smile. "Tadao is making hot chocolate. Would you like some?" Kagami and Tsukasa replied with a "Sure." "What about you, Tamura-san?" she then asked.

"Ok," she replied. After Miki left to fetch the drinks, Hiyori commented to the sisters "Wow, your mother is really beautiful." _Is that weird to say?_

Apparently it was, for she received a slight raise of an eyebrow from each of the Hiiragis. "Uh, thanks, I guess," Kagami said back.

_Shoot. I should learn to think **before** I speak._ A moment or two later, Miki returned with three mugs of hot chocolate. With each of the three girls now sitting at the table, Miki entered the room and placed each a cup in front of each. Tsukasa sat across from her sister and Hiyori sat to Kagami's left.

"So," Miki said to Tamura, "you're in Kagami's class. You're… Hiyori, right?"

"Right," she replied before taking a sip of her drink. "This is really good."

"Oh, that's some instant mix we always buy. It's nothing special, really… Kagami has mentioned you a couple of times, if I remember correctly. She said you like to draw?"

"… Y-Yeah," Hiyori said back with caution.

"What do you like to draw?"

"Uh… stuff…" _Damn it, she's getting too nosey._

"Well, what _kind _of stu-"

Kagami suddenly intervened. "Mom, please!" she protested. "Hiyori's sensitive about her work. She doesn't really like to talk about it, not even to close friends."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know," Miki quickly apologized. "I didn't mean to be intrusive."

"No no, it's alright," Hiyori said back in a modest tone. Quickly feeling out of place (not to mention embarrassed after being told off by her own daughter), Miki excused herself and left the room. After Tsukasa had taken a sip of her coco, she made a comment along the lines of Hiyori. "I know we have this all the time, but this _is_ good."

"Well," added Kagami, "maybe it would taste better in _your_ room." _What the-?_

"Onee-chan?" Tsukasa asked. "Are you kicking me out of your room?"

"Sort of," she replied. "Looks like you already forgot what we agreed upon today."

"Hmm?" said Tsukasa, giving a tilt of her head.

"Remember? You agreed that if I let you come along and ice skate, you would promise to finish your homework when we got back?"

Realization swelled onto the younger Hiiragi's face, followed shortly after by despair. "Aww, but can't I stay a few more minutes?" she asked.

"Hey, we had a _deal_, Tsukasa. I _could_ not let you come the next time…"

"… Fine," Tsukasa relented, giving a slight pout. Taking her coco with her, she left Kagami's room, leaving her and Hiyori alone, sitting adjacent from each other.

"… That was a little mean of you," Tamura commented.

"Maybe," Kagami said back after taking a sip of her hot drink, "but she _agreed_ to it. Besides, I know for _fact_ that if I didn't hound her about it, she would forget to do it completely."

"I guess you have a point." _… I just realized. Kagami and I are now **alone**. I can try to get that kiss from her… How do I do this? Wait, how did Konata do it? No, I can't do that; she just jumped onto me. I can't randomly do that to Kagami! So… do I **ask** her? No, that's just stupid. "Hey, Kagami, can I kiss you, even though we've practically never been past acquaintances ever before in our lives?" Yeah, **that'll** work…_

_ … Does this mean I need to make a confession? So that she'll agree to it? No, that's even worse than jumping on her! Jesus, how could Konata do this so effortlessly when it's tearing me apart just **contemplating **it? Damn it, I don't know if I can-_

"Hiyori?" Kagami asked suddenly, breaking the artist from her deep thought. "Something wrong? You look a little flustered." _I must have been so deep in thought I didn't even realize that I was beginning to sweat._

"Um, no, I'm fine… I'm… I need to tell you something."

"… What is it?" the elder Hiiragi asked.

_Damn. I really dug myself into that hole right there. I got her attention, but what the hell do I say now? What do I say? What do I say? What do I-_

_ Oh fuck it._

"Kagami, I love you."

…

Slowly did Kagami turn her cobalt eyes to the artist's lilac ones. The skin of her face began to pale at the hearing of such a statement. With quivering lips, she managed to ask "W-Wha-?"

She was cut short when, upon sore and bruised legs, Hiyori plunged herself forward and connected her lips to Kagami's. Much like Konata did, Hiyori's push caused the Hiiragi to fall backwards and caused Tamura to fall on top of her friend.

With lips still connected, Kagami seemed to resist Hiyori's advance, positioning her arms beneath her body and pushing it upward. However, Tamura found something _odd_ about the way Kagami was resisting: there was no real strength to speak of in her pushes.

In other words, Kagami could have _easily_ removed Hiyori from off of her, but she _didn't_…

Finally the bond between the broke and, for a split moment, Tamura's and Kagami's eyes were locked in a state of confusion and infatuation. Hiyori's name slipped past Kagami's lips in a whisper…

The door to the Hiiragi's room suddenly opened and Tsukasa poked her head through. "Sorry, Onee-chan," she began, "but can I please borrow your history bo-"

All she saw was her sister beneath Hiyori. And that was all she _needed _to see. With a plastered look of shock on her visage, Tsukasa slowly slid herself backwards and quietly shut the door.

"… Oh shit," Hiyori blurted, turning her gaze back to the girl beneath her. "I-I… I'm sorry! I didn't mean for it to be like this! I… I have to go!" She leapt from the floor and bolted to the door. Kagami called out her name "Hiyori! Wait!" but it was too late. By the time she heard Kagami say it, she was already bounding down the stairs, out the front door, and into the cold winter's night.

_GOD DAMN IT! I really screwed up this time! Kagami, I'm so sorry…_

-o0o-

The next day, Hiyori Tamura did not attend school. Konata Izumi, being the only other who knew what Hiyori had done the day previous (besides Kagami,) became instantly curious as to what had happened. Seeing Kagami at lunch wasn't as helpful as she thought it would have been. The only thing that she noticed about Kagami that day was the she seemed to be less talkative.

After meeting with Hiyori's teachers, she agreed to bring to her house her homework, thus giving her an excuse to go to the Tamura residence for a "post-mission debriefing." She arrived at the residence after school had been left out and, after being let in by her mother, Izumi immediately headed for Hiyori's room.

She found the woman in question sitting at her table atop a soft cushion, _clearly_ engrossed in what looked like a marathon of work. On her left hand side was a stack of note books: some green, some blue, and some _red_. By this time, Konata had figured out Hiyori's color-code: blue was scripts, green was drawings, and _red_, of course, was any combination of the two that was of "X-rated" content. In front of her was a blue notebook, and the artist looked to be in the very middle of writing a story. On her _right_ hand side, next to a steaming cup of coffee, were more stacks of notebooks, varying in their three colors, their pages fluffed up from use.

"Hey Hiyori," Izumi greeted her girlfriend warmly (_she_ referred to Hiyori as such, not knowing that Tamura did not do the same for her.) "How did yesterday go? Successful I suspect.?"

The artist never lifted her eyes from her work to respond to Konata. "Terrible," she replied before taking a gulp of coffee.

"Terrible?" Konata repeated. Placing Hiyori's homework on her desk, Izumi took a close seat to Tamura's right (so close, in fact, that their thighs brushed together.) "How so?"

Hiyori showed an incredible display of multi-tasking by both regaling her misadventures of two days ago _and_ continuing to write her script. "I _tell_ you how," she began, her voice showing clear agitation. "So I meet Kagami in the hallway and ask her if she wants to hang out. When she asks what I wanted to do I, like an_ idiot_, blurt out the first thing that came to mind: ice skating. As it turns out, Kagami _loves_ ice skating, but _I've_ never ice sated in my _life_. Then (again, like an idiot) I agree to let Tsukasa come along for the day!

So the next day we meet up at the rink. I have these shit rental skates while _they_ bring their _own_ skates. While they both head off and start to skate like freakin pros, I fall on my ass a minimum of a hundred times!" Konata giggled at that part, but Hiyori ignored it and continued with her regaling. "Then Kagami takes pity on me and offers to teach me! I was already embarrassed as hell, so I accepted." She paused. "Actually, I _did_ end up getting better at it once we called it quits…

So _then_ they invite me to their house and I make a fool of myself by complementing their smoking hot mother. Then, after Tsukasa leaves for _her_ room, Kagami and I are alone in _her_ room. Next thing I know, I start panicking and, in blind fright, I blurt out that I love her and I end up falling on top of her when I leaned in to kiss her."

"So you _did_ kiss her," Konata exclaimed with delight. "So, how did she react? Freaked out, I bet."

For the first time, Hiyori halted in her work, placing her mechanical pencil aside, and then turning to finally look Konata in her eyes. "Actually," Tamura resumed, her voice noticeably calmer, "that was _another_ strange thing about that day. When I fell on top of her, she_ acted_ like she was refusing by trying to push me off. But the thing of it was, there was no real strength in her pushes. It was if she was _acting _like refusing…"

"Hmm," said Izumi back, "that _is_ strange… But it looks like you've got a boat load of inspiration and material to draw on," she then commented, making a glance to the fluffed-up notebooks. "So don't worry about it. Just write your brains out, my little artist." Izumi then reached her left arm to Hiyori's back and gave it a swift pat. Tamura winced in pain an instant later.

"Oops, sorry," Konata apologized, "I forgot you're all bruised from your 'ice-capades.'"

"Ugh, don't worry about it," Hiyori groaned in reply. "After some good rest, I think I'll be well enough to come back to school tomorrow."

"… Would you like it if I kissed your wounds? You know, to make them feel better?" Izumi then offered, all the while smirking.

The artist raised an eyebrow at the bluenette's clearly sexual offer. "Uh, I don't think that'll help," she nervously responded. "Besides, I'm bruised _all over_."

Izumi winked. "I _know_."

"… How about a _regular_ kiss instead… Tell you what: let's make it French."

-o0o-

_Hey, it's me, Kagami. Just wanted to talk. Give me a call._

With one more press of a button, Kagami sent the text message from her phone to Hiyori. With that deed done, she placed the phone on the nightstand next to her bed and, falling backward onto her mattress, gazed upward at the ceiling. "_Hiyori_." she thought to herself, "_please answer me…_

_ I just want to make sense of it all…"_


	3. Misao

Chapter 3

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Before this chapter commences, I'd like to make a quick thanks to **Solarius Scorch** for pointing out a possible factual error in the last chapter. Hiyori is a _first _year, alongside Minami and Yutaka. Kagami is a _third_ year. That being said, I think I made an error in saying that two shared a homeroom. It doesn't really affect the plot too much (I can change it if need be) but I thought I'd just say that. Thanks again, Scorch.

* * *

Konata once more took her position sitting atop of Hiyori's left thigh. After a brief pause, the two leaned forward and their lips connected. Then, after a few moments, Konata took the initiative and introduced her tongue into Tamura's mouth, beginning the process of massaging it against her partner's.

This time, though, Hiyori did not back off.

Instead, she met the intrusion with one of her own. Soon, both girls had their arms wrapped around each other's waists, holding each other in a tender clinch. They broke oral contact only to take in quick breaths of air. The bonded lasted for longer than both of them intended.

When their moment finally ended, the two slowly pulled their faces apart, their eyes gazing to one another. Initially, the only thing that could be mustered from Hiyori was a faint and whispered "Wow…"

Izumi giggled from a mixture of giddiness and from Tamura's reaction. "See?" the bluenette asked Hiyori. "That wasn't so bad, was it? Nothing to be afraid of."

"Y-Yeah… But I wasn't afraid before. You just caught me off guard is all… That was fun, Konata…"

"… Sorry to break this little moment here," Izumi then said, "but I have to ask: Who's your next source of inspiration gonna be?"

"Well, I'll tell you who it defiantly_ won't_ be: Tsukasa."

"Wha? Why not? That little ball of timid cuteness has got to be worth _something_!"

"It's not that, Konata! Tsukasa kind of… walked in on Kagami and me."

"_Oh_, I see… Yeah, I see your point now. Ok, Tsukasa is off the list… but that limits our choices even more. Who's left again?"

The artist retrieved her phone and quickly scrolled through her contact list. "There's… Patricia Martin, Ayano Minegishi, and Misao Kusakabe… Well, it doesn't matter right now. I got enough ideas in my head to last me a while, so I'll choose when it's time to."

As it turned out, that moment came two weeks later, when, once more, Hiyori came to a creative halt. After a night of contemplation, Hiyori chose who her _third_ source would be: Misao.

-o0o-

Since Misao did not share a homeroom with Hiyori, finding her would be a slightly more difficult task. In-between classes, the young artist kept an ever vigilant eye for her head of short brown hair (not to mention an open ear for her loud voice.) After the last bell of the day had rung and students began to file out of the school and into the courtyard, Tamura seemed to catch a break in her search.

From a distance to her left, she could hear Misao talking loudly to a friend. "Aw, come _on_, Hiiragi! Why can't I come over!"

_That's not good_. Tamura turned her gaze to her left and spotted the brown haired girl talking to Kagami. From the look on her face, it was clear that she was displeased at _something_. _Great, and Kagami is **right there!** What should I do?_ Just then, in the midst of their conversation, Kagami glanced in Tamura's direction and her sharp eyes me hers.

Panic quickly swelled onto her face and, turning back to Kusakabe, she hastily excused herself and ran off. Misao was left rather confused. "Hey! Where are you going!" she called out to the twin tailed girl, but she was already well off. After a shrug of her shoulders, Misao turned to also see Hiyori standing at a distance.

"Hey Hiyori!" the girl greeted the artist as she approached. "How's it hanging?"

"Not bad… Taking to Kagami?" she then asked.

"Well, I _was_. Then she just suddenly got all nervous and walked off. Weird, right?"

"Y-Yeah, weird… Hey, Misao… You doing anything this week?" Hiyori found that asking this question was becoming easier and easier.

Misao thought for a brief second before replying. "Well, nothing really. I'm going to a _hockey_ game in two days." The name of the sport was spoken in English, which instantly caused confusion for Tamura.

"Eh? You're going to a snack food?" the artist asked in puzzlement.

Misao laughed back. "No, not _Pocky_, _hockey_. It's an American sport that's played on-"

"Misao, I _do_ know what _hockey_ is. I just misheard you." _Just what I want to be near: ice and skates. I'm still slightly sore from before. Jesus, I bruise worse than a banana._

"Oh, right. Hmm… Hey, you wanna go with me?" _Wait, shouldn't **I** be the one asking that?_ "Oh wait, I forgot, sports aren't really your bag. Nevermind. I guess I can ask someone el-"

"No, wait!" Tamura quickly interjected. "I'll go, sure!"

"You will?" Kusakabe asked with surprise. "I didn't think you liked sports." _I don't really. My "ice-capades" made that fact **clearly** evident_. "But if you wanna go, that's ok with me! It's in two days. You know how to get to the stadium from here?"

"Uh, yeah, I think I do," Hiyori said back. "It's in the next town over, a like seven stops outbound, right?"

"Yep, you got it. I'll meet you there at around 20:00, ok?"

"Sure."

_Well, **that** was easier than I thought. Hell, she practically set the date up on her own. Ends justify means, right? I just hope this ends better than the last one…_

-o0o-

It had been two weeks since Kagami's day with Hiyori. Even after all that time, the twin tailed girl could not help but have her mind go back to that moment, where the bespectialed girl threw herself on top of her and… stole her first kiss.

As she laid atop her bed, her sharp eyes fixed to the ceiling of her room, the door to the room opened and Miki poked her head through. "Kagami," she said, "dinner is ready. You coming down to eat with us?"

"… I'm not really hungry," was her daughter's reply.

Worry showed in Miki's eyes. "Kagami, is something wrong? You been acting kind of strange lately. You can tell me if something is wrong."

"It's nothing, Mom. I'm fine." Her voice showed clear melancholy.

"Ok… See you down stairs then…" After Miki shut the door, Kagami voiced a distant sigh to herself. "_Hiyori,_" she thought to herself. "_Why did you do that…?_"

-o0o-

Hiyori met Misao at their intended destination: a station located a brief walk from the stadium itself. Already, at this hour, there were crowds of people who (if their clothing had any indication) were _also_ attending the game. Stepping off the train, Hiyori began to frantically scan the crowd in search of Kusakabe. So far, she had no success of locating her.

_Crap. The game starts in forty minutes and I can't find Misao anywhere! If I can't find her soon, we're gonna miss it and this whole day would have been wasted. Damn it, you short haired bi-_ "AAH!"

Hiyori yelped at the touch of a tight hand on both her shoulders, grabbing her from behind her back. Her mind instantly raced with strange and frightening thoughts._ Shit, what if it's one of those train gropers I hear about on the radio. Or worse, one of those guys that's abducting high school girls? They just had a big special on them on the news a few days ago._

_ Well, I'm not going to become another statistic! I got to defend myself, take a strike back!_ With sudden fury in her veins, she whipped around and cocked a fist up, ready to plant it into the person's face. She, in fact, came extremely close, but the person grabbed it.

Thankfully, it was only Misao.

"Oh crap!" Tamura exclaimed as she pulled her hand back. "I'm so sorry! I thought you were someone else!"

"Who the heck _would_ I be?" she laughed back.

"Actually, I thought you were one of those 'gropists.'"

"HA! Good one, Hiyori! Come on, we need to get there early if we're gonna get good seats."

The two girls left the station and began to head off into the city with the flow of traffic on the sidewalks. "Hey, Misao," said Hiyori at one point during their walk. "Don't people usually _preorder_ tickets to this kind of stuff."

"_Usually_," she responded, "but hockey isn't that popular in Japan yet, so we can pretty much just walk up and buy tickets. Don't worry, I'll pay for your ticket, Hiyori."

"Thanks. Hey, Misao, if hockey isn't really popular, why do _you_ like it?"

"Are you kidding? It one of the only sports you get to see people beat the crap out of each other!" _Figures_. "Plus I love how physical it is!"

_Physical. Right… Ugh, why did my mind just go there? I think I've been hanging out with Konata too much. She has been infecting my brain with perverted thoughts…_

The flow of people led the Ryoo students to the city's stadium. Having never been to such an event before (or at least not in recent memory) Hiyori was personally surprised at both how large the structure was and the multitude of people that had crowded near the front entrance. _Sure, it's a lot of people, but it's no Comiket._

Just as Kusakabe has said, the two were able, much to Hiyori's continuing surprise, to get in a short line and purchase tickets for the game, which was now no more than twenty minutes from starting. "I think there's enough time to get some snacks if you want to," Misao suggested. Feeling a bit famished herself, Hiyori agreed.

Their seats were located in Row G of Section 14, putting them behind the net of the opposing team. Once the two had bought their food and drink, they took their seat. Tamura bought for herself a bag of popcorn and a Pepsi (both of medium size.) Kusakabe, however, took to the extreme and ordered a hot dog, nachos, popcorn, _and_ a drink (the latter two being large sized.)

The artist took one look at the smorgasbord that sat in Misao's lap and burst into laughter. "What so funny?" Misao interrogated.

"Sorry, but you're not _really_ going to eat _all_ that food, right?" Hiyori asked.

"You bet your ass I am!" Kusakabe instantly declared back as she reached down and shoved a fistful of popcorn into her mouth. _What, is this girl a bottomless pit? If I ate all that crap in one sitting, I'd most likely be dead the next morning._

A few minutes later brought the sound of the first buzzer and the start of the game. Tamura watched as Misao _instantly_ became engrossed in the action of the game, her eyes scanning back and forth across the length of the rink, ever locked onto the puck. Hiyori watched as well, but her amusement was hovering slightly over "amused." As Misao had pointed out a few days earlier, sports were not Hiyori's "bag." _Still, if it gets me closer to her, I can endure this snooze fest._

As mentioned previously, Misao had become absorbed in the action of the game. Whenever the home team missed the opposing team's net, she would exclaim along the lines of "Oh come on!" Every. Single. Time. When the opposite happened (the visitors missed the home team's net), she would exclaim a "Yes!" But then, in the second quarter, when the visiting team scored a goal, her _true_ colors showed.

She jumped to her feet (paying no attention to the popcorn that sat in her lap, which spilled at her feet) and yelled at the top of her lungs "What the _fuck_ was _that_ shit! Get you heads in the _fucking_ game!" She then returned herself to her seat, huffing a "Damn, fucking idiots, I swear!"

Finally turning to Hiyori for the first time since the game started, Kusakabe saw the paled and frightened look on the artist's face. "What?" Misao asked casually.

"… Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Tamura asked her.

"Huh? What do you- Oh! Sorry about that, Hiyori," she then apologized, all the while scratching the back of her neck. "I guess I get a little _too_ involved in sporting events sometimes."

_Clearly…_ "Try to put a damper on it, please?"

"Fine fine," the fanged girl relented. "Hey, want some of my nachos?" she then offered.

"Uh, ok," Hiyroi replied. Having never tried stadium nachos before, she was curious as to how they tasted. She picked from the plastic dish one chip (half it surface coated in the orange substance) and took a bite.

Not to appear rude, she pretended to like it. _These are **not** nachos. Nachos have salsa, sour cream, peppers, (sometimes) chives, and (most importantly) **cheese**. **That** is not cheese. I don't know **what** it is, but it's certainly not cheese._

Hiyori watched as Misao, her eyes locked back onto the game, continued to shovel food down her throat. _Maybe I should call an ambulance on standby, just to be safe if she has a heart attack…_

-o0o-

The game ended with disappointment for the home team: a devastating 7-0 defeat. Outside, again walking with the crowd, the feeling of defeat seemed to hang on the majority of those that left the stadium.

"Dang," Misao said aloud, "that wasn't even a _close_ game. It was a fu- I mean a freaking shutout! Sorry it didn't end in victory, Hiyori."

"Why are _you_ apologizing?" she asked back. "It's not like _you_ had any control of the game."

"Yeah, I know, but it would have been cool if we won… Hey, you hungry?"

"What the-? You're _still_ hunger? You just ate and drank your weight in stadium food!"

"But now I'm ready to eat some _real_ food… hey, let's go there." Misao aimed a finger to a fast food restaurant down and across the street. _You call that **real** food?_

"Are you _seriously_ going to eat more?" Tamura asked, fully aware of the answer. "Fine. I guess I could just have something to drink… Actually, now that you mention it, I need to use the bathroom."

Crossing at the nearest crosswalk, the two students entered the restaurant. While Kusakabe made for the registers, Hiyori went immediately for the bathrooms. Reemerging a few moments later, she spotted the fanged girl sitting at a booth with a large burger value meal (with two drinks) placed before her._ And **how** is this chick not fat?_

Sitting opposite Misao at the booth, the fanged girl immediately placed the second drink in front of Tamura. "Thanks," Hiyori said. "… Uh, Misao, not to seem rude, but how the _hell_ can you eat all that food without remorse?"

"Because I do sports," was her instant reply. "I'm so active, I could eat this kind of stuff all day and I wouldn't get fat."

"That doesn't mean you _should_," the artist added.

"Don't worry, I don't _normally_ eat like this." After a few moments of silence (much of which Misao spent shoving food in her face) she asked Hiyori right out of the blue a rather _blunt_ question.

"Hiyori, do you like me or something?" she asked.

Being mid-sip, Tamura choked on her Pepsi. "W-What?" she blurted back.

"Do you _like_ me?" she reiterated.

_That was out of freakin nowhere! Well, what do I say? **Do** I like her?... It's mean for me to say, but **no**, I kind of don't. I mean, she's a nice friend and all, but I don't like her like I do Konata. Besides, this whole date was for the purpose of research-_

Seeing Hiyori stall prompted Kusakabe to continue to speak. "I mean I won't _hate_ you if you do. Hell, I'll take it as a complement."

Tamura finally spoke. "… Well, I _kind of_ like you," she told Misao. _Ok, so I **half** lied. that's the best I can do._

What Misao _then_ asked freaked out the artist further. "So, do you wanna kiss me or something?" she asked casually.

"GAH! Jesus, Misao, not so loud. People could hear you!" Hiyori gave a quick glance around herself. Thankfully, it seemed that no one heard her friend's questions.

"Look, if you _do_, you could have just _asked_." _… What?_ "Heck, I'd be lying if I wasn't _somewhat_ curious about kissing another girl."

"… Y-You _are_?" asked Hiyori in disbelief.

"Yeah, a _little_… So? What's your answer?"

_I don't want to hurt her feeling so…_ "Well, I like you a _little_," Hiyori replied timidly.

"Do you wanna kiss me?" was her next question. _Why the hell is she being so blunt and, furthermore, how the hell is she so calm asking that!_

"… Sort of…" Tamura whispered back.

"… Ok then." _Ok then?_

"Uh, Misao, what do you mean by 'Ok?'"

Kusakabe took a gulp of her soda before replying "If you wanna kiss, that's fine with me. Once I finish my fires, we'll go somewhere outside and we can kiss there."

_Wha- The **fuck?** She's so damn laid-back about this! I'm starting to think that Misao has kissed girls before. Maybe **that's** why she's taking about it so casually. _"Misao, have you ever kissed another girl _before_?" the artist then asked.

"Nope," was Misao's instant reply.

"_Never_ before?"

"No, never before."

"UGH! Then why are you so cool about this? How can you act so damn nonchalant about it!"

Once more, Kusakaba paused to finish chewing a mouthful of fires before she answered "Because I'm doing it for a _friend_."

"… Eh?"

"Look, I may not act it, but I'm loyal to friends. If I think they're in need, I want to help them. So if you want to kiss, that's fine, I'm willing to do it… just don't bet on going much further than _that_," Misao concluded, giving Hiyori a fanged grin. "Besides, it's _just_ a kiss. What's a kiss among friends, right?"

"Uh, right… Thank you, Misao…"

-o0o-

When her meal was concluded, Misao led the nervous artist back down the sidewalk, toward the direction of the train station they had arrived in. Tamura had not a single idea where Misao was taking her, so she was shocked when the short haired girl halted in front of a dark, skinny space between two buildings. "This place looks good," she commented aloud.

Grabbing Hiyori by her right hand, Kusakabe entered into the shadow of the nook and pulled the artist in behind her. In such a confined space, when the two girls faced each other, their chests were mere inches apart from touching. _This place is dark. It's like in anime where the helpless schoolgirls are always cornered by thugs. I wonder if that will happen now. Yeah, and Misao, with her athleticism would defend me. No, that would be **extremely** cliché._

Suddenly placing a hand on each side of Hiyori's waist, Misao whispered to her "You ready?"

The artist nodded back and replied "Sure."

Putting _her_ hands to her friend's waist, they brought themselves closer until their lips connected. For Hiyori, kissing was becoming an easier thing to do. In comparison to her first kiss (which in actuality she never really _gave_) her kiss with Misao was, though enjoyable, surprisingly easy to do. There was little in the way of hesitation on Tamura's part.

After a moment, Hiyori took a bold step forward and entered her tongue into Kusakabe's mouth. Her reaction was a muffled "Hmm" of pleasure, followed shortly after by _her_ tongue. Slowly both their arms continued around the partners' back until the two students were in full embrace, and such embrace was held for a few minutes. In the shadow of the alley, passersby could not see them. It was just Hiyori and Misao, alone…

When then touch of their lips lifted, Misao had a surprised look on her face. "Dang," she commented, "that was pretty good. _You're_ a good kisser. Been practicing, have we?" she asked with a grin.

"Maybe," was Tamura's reply. "…Uh, thanks for doing this for me, Misao."

"No problem. Hey, if you wanna do it again, don't be afraid to ask, ok Hiyori?"

"S-Sure… Uh, Misao, I feel really bad saying this… but I _kind_ of intended on this being a 'one night stand' kid of a deal, know what I mean? I'm sorry if I hurt your feeling by saying that, but I thought it was better I get the truth out-"

"Don't worry about it," Misao interjected. "In fact, I was going to tell you later tonight that 'This would never work out,' so we can act as if this never even happened, ok?"

_Wow, she took that in such stride! She's incredible! I wish **I** could be as laid-back as her, then maybe the rest of these dates I have to go on will be a lot less intimidating… You know, even though Misao planned on saying that it would never work out between us, I can still imaging us together._

_ But I have Konata, and she's more than enough for me…_

-o0o-

"Hell-o Hi-yor-i!" Konata greeted her girlfriend in a sing-songly manner. Poking her blue head of hair through her bedroom door, she found the artist right where she expected her to be: at her table, busily drawing away. "I brought you a gift," she then said, holding up a small plastic bag in her right hand.

This brought the artist's eyes off her work and to Konata. "Oh, thank you," she said to Izumi. The bluenette enter the room and took her usual spot nestled to the right of Hiyori. Handing her the bag, Tamura quickly retrieved from within its contents: a 64 set of colored pencils.

Through Hiyori smiled on the outside as to show her gratitude, on the _inside_, the artist was rolling her eyes. _I recognize this brand: this is cheapo stuff, the kind schools buy to save money, plus the fact that ninety-nine percent of the kids can't tell the difference from shit and **quality** pencils._

_ Still, though, it was really nice of Konata to do this._ "Thanks, Kona-chan," Tamura thanked once more.

"Hey! You just called me by my nickname!" Konata exclaimed.

"… I guess I _did_," Hiyori said back with a grin of her own.

"So, have you decided who your next victim will be?"

"I wish you wouldn't call them that… but I think I'm going to go after Ayano next."

"Oh, tough one!"

"What makes you say that?" asked Hiyori.

"Because," Izumi replied, "she has a _boyfriend_ already."

"Hmm… Yeah she keeps talking about him, but I've never actually seen him before. This might be a chance to find out… But that's for the future. I'm running well off the inspiration I got."

That stint of inspiration lasted a week and a half later, which caused the artist to worry. _That less time than I had from Kagami. I hope Ayano can give me more of a boost…_


	4. Tsukasa

Chapter 4

It was four days into the aforementioned stint of "Misao mojo." As was the case with the other stretches of inspiration Hiyori had endured, her mind, nearly day and night, was abuzz with new ideas, story projects, and new thoughts on drawings. Even in class, when her attention should have been focused on her studies, the young artist's mind could not help but pop intermittent ideas into her head.

_Let's see…_ she began to contemplate as she walked the crowded hallways of her school, moving from one class to the next. _I finished that last script yesterday… but I think I got an idea for another one. It will be… a sempai and a kouhai. The sempai is a stellar track and field athlete while the kouhai is an average student. They both grow to love each other as the story progresses, but at one point, the sempai is offered a full athletic scholarship to a respected university. However, this would mean moving far away from the kouhai. The plot can center around her internal struggle of choosing to go or stay._

_ A used archetype, I'll admit, but I think I can spin it around and give the story a fresh twist to spice things up. What if I-?_

At one point during her walk, Hiyori suddenly felt the back of her shirt grabbed and tugged gently. Instantly, she thought she knew who it was. _It's probably Konata, checking up on my progress. I told her yesterday that I'm well into my inspiration from Misao. I think I'll last for another week or so…_

Fully expecting her blue haired girlfriend to appear, the artist turned around and greeted "Hey Konata-Oh my God!"

It was Tsukasa Hiiragi.

The short haired Hiiragi daughter stood before Hiyori with fidgeting hands placed in front of her. Her gaze was tilted downward to Tamura's feet. Clear trepidation showed on Tsukasa's face. _Shit. It just **had** to be her, didn't it? Well, I suppose the only one worst would be Kagami; no way in hell I can face her… Tsukasa probably wants to talk about that night, about what she saw…_

"… Y-Yes?" Hiyori finally forced herself to ask.

Nervousness poured from her voice like a waterfall. "Um… Hi," she squeaked in a quiet voice. It was nearly drowned out by the ambient noise of the hallway. "Um… Tamura-san?"

"… Yeah?"

"… C-Can we meet after school?" _Oh shit._ "You know that café a few blocks from the school? The one in-between here and the station?"

Hiyori knew what café she was talking about. It was a quiet, family run place she had visited many times before. They served, in the artist's opinion, the best caramel macchiato she had ever tasted. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Y-You want to meet there?" Her reply was a nod from Tsukasa. "Um… W-What did you want to talk about?" _Of **course** I know what she wants to talk about! Anyone with a shred of cognitive memory could piece this together._

"Um… Can we talk about it when we get there?" Hiiragi asked.

"Sure…"

"Ok bye!" With that Tsukasa quickly spun around and vanished into the crowd. _This **cannot** be good…_

-o0o-

When school ended the next day, it was a mere three minute walk from the courtyard for Hiyori to reach the café. Looking in through the store's front window, she could see Tsukasa already sitting at a table with a coffee drink (topped with whipped cream) sitting before her. _Oh man, I was hoping she wouldn't show. Well, better get this over with. The quicker the better._

When Hiyori opened the door and stepped through, a familiar bell rang, alerting the staff that a new customer had arrived. It also alerted Tsukasa. She lifted her gaze to the door and, spotting Tamura, gave a week smile from across the room. Hiyori walked over to the table and, placing her school bags at the foot of her chair, took a seat.

Initially, no one dared to speak, choosing instead to keep silent. Tsukasa continued to stare into her coffee, watching the vapors of steam rise from it. Hiyori had her eyes on Tsukasa, waiting for her to begin. _What is she waiting for? She's only delaying the inevitable by doing this_.

Just then, Tsukasa then lifted her eyes and opened her mouth slightly, appearing to be at the very precipice of speech. But before that occurred, a waitress finally arrived and, in a cheerful voice, asked Hiyori "Is there anything I can get you?"

Caught off guard, it took the artist a second of two to respond. "Caramel macchiato, please," she ordered. With a smile and nod the waitress left, leaving the two alone once more. It took Tsukasa another moment to regain her composure in order to speak again. She waited until Hiyori was served her macchiato before she asked her first question.

Her first question was perhaps her most straightforward. "… Why did you kiss onee-chan?"

_And, of course, she deals out a fatal blow in the first round_. "…Well," Hiyori began to explain, _forcing_ herself to do so, "… it's because…"

"Do you _like_ one-chan?" she then asked.

_What do I say? What do I say! I can't say "No." That would crush her! I have to lie, there's no way around that, but the most I can do is say a **half** lie._ "… Sort of…" Tamura finally replied.

The Hiiragi's eyes lifted from the now melting whipped cream and back onto Hiyori. "Really?" she then asked.

"… Y-Yeah…"

"Well, if you like onee-chan, why haven't you been over our house lately?"

"… It's complicated…" _Good one, Hiyori. Keep it as vague as possible. This way you can't get caught in a hole of your own making._

Tsukasa seemed to go quite for a moment after that. After a second or two, she picked up her drink and took a long sip from it. It must have not been that hot because when the cup was placed back onto the table, half its contents were gone.

Hiyori took this a cue to take a sip of her macchiato. As usual, it was bliss to her taste buds. For a moment, the artist got lost in the flavor and aroma of the drink and actually _forgot_ that someone was sitting across from her. That is until she spoke, of course.

"… What was it like?" Tsukasa asked.

Tamura put her cup back down before asking "What was _what_ like?"

"… Kissing onee-chan. What was it like?"

"… Uhh…" _Why in the **hell** would she be asking a question like that? I mean, I understand why she asked **why** I kissed her sister, but to ask "How was it?" In what way would she benefit from knowing what it would be like to-_

_ Oh God._

With terror on her face, Hiyori forced herself to ask Tsukasa this next question. "Tsukasa… do _you_ like Kagami?"

When the artist's reply was silence and a slight reddening of Tsukasa's face, things instantly began to make sense for Hiyori. _So **that's** why she brought me here. She wasn't mad at me. She was **curious**. But now comes something even more difficult: How do I answer her question?_

"Well," Hiyori began tentatively, "to answer your question… It's like… Well, it's not that different than kissing a guy." _And I **just** told myself about not digging myself into inescapable holes! Now I blurt out **that?**_

"R-Really?" Tsukasa asked with care. "Well, I've never kissed a boy before…"_ Yeah, you and I both_. "So… What does kissing a _boy_ feel like?"

_No choice but to lie again… Damn it. _"It's… interesting," Tamura replied.

"I see…"

The artist lowered her gaze to her macchiato_. This conversation is going to lead somewhere **bad**, I just know it! Until I give this girl a concrete answer, she's not going to stop with the questions! I have to get myself out of here a quickly as possible. I know avoiding the problem isn't going to solve anything, but it's the best I can-_

"Tamura-san?" Tsukasa suddenly asked.

Lifting her eyes back upward, Hiyori found Tuskasa's face mere inches from hers and the distance closing. Tamura had no time to react. Standing up from her seat, Tsukasa had leaned herself over the table and, using her arms to hold herself up, leaned forward to bring her lips to contact with Hiyori.

Tamura was now paralyzed, Tsukasa's lips pressed gently against hers. _W- What the?_ She began to scan her eyes to her left and right, to see if anyone in the restaurant was seeing this.

Everyone was staring at them. **_Everyone_**.

Finally the contact broke and the Hiiragi sister fell backwards into her chair, a strong blush now painted to her cheeks. "… Wow," she whispered, "… that _was_ interesting…

S-Sorry I did that so suddenly, Tamura-san, but I just wanted to know how it felt, you know?" Seeing that Hiyori was still too in-shock to speak, she continued. "Thanks for meeting with me today, Hiyori. I think I feel a lot better… And I think I can finally talk with onee-chan now." With that the Hiiragi rose from her chair and slung her bag over her shoulder. "See you around!" she then said with a smile as she left the coffee shop.

_… What in the world did I just create?_

-o0o-

When Tsukasa arrived home later that day, she immediately was asked by her parents where she had been and why she did not return home with her sister. It was a simply matter for her to lie and say that she checked out a few afterschool clubs, saying that she didn't find one that interested her.

But when she headed upstairs to her room, passing the door to Kagami's room, she received another bout of interrogation.

A second after Tsukasa passed Kagami's door, it flew open and Kagami stepped into the hallway. "So," she said to her sister, "where were you _really_?"

Tsukasa quickly spun herself around to face her sister. The embarrassed blush on her face could not be helped. "Well," she began with her usual nervousness, "like I said, I was checking out afterschool clubs."

"Yeah, _right_," she said back with skepticism. "You've never been a good liar, Tuskasa. You may have Mom and Dad fooled, but you can't fool _me_.

I'll ask again. What did you do?"

"I… I met with someone…"

_This_ caused the sister to raise a curious eyebrow. "Oh yeah? With who?"

"… Hiyori."

"W- Wha- Hiyori? W- Why did you meet with _her_? What did you _do_!"

Tsukasa's breathing quickly became rapid with anxiety, preventing her from responding with words. Suddenly, she instead, like she did in the café, launched herself forward at her sister and planted a kiss on her sister's mouth. It lasted but a second, Tsukasa pulling back immediately, but it left Kagami nonetheless in petrified stun.

"I- I'm sorry," Tsukasa quickly apologized with perhaps a hundred rapid bows. "I just wanted to know how it felt! Sorry!" With that last apology, the sister quickly fled down the hallway and into her room, leaving Kagami standing alone in the hallway.

She little by little brought the fingers of her right hand to touch her lips, which were still warm from Tuskasa's. "… What is going on?" she whispered to herself. "Hiyori, what did you do to my _sister_!"

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Just a short little chapter. This and the next chapter will act as a break in the story, deterring from the "girl by chapter" format you were probably expecting. I still suggest you read them, of course. :)


	5. Konata: Part Deux

Chapter 5

* * *

**Author's Notes: **For the sake of this chapter, when Konata speaks _in italics_, she is speaking in-character. When she speaks without italics, she is speaking out-of-character. You'll see what I mean in a moment.

* * *

More time had passed since the artist's freak and unintended meeting with Tsukasa. At this day in time, Hiyori had _officially_ torn every last shred of work she could from her Misao stint of inspiration. It was now the night before Hiyori would ask the next girl out on a date.

After taking a quick bath, the artist returned to her room, clad in pajamas and a towel wrapped around her head. In the process of drying her black head of hair, her cell phone, which sat atop her night stand (as it usually did) vibrated and buzzed with the alert of a text message. Picking the phone up, she was pleased to see that said message came from Konata.

_Hey, how's it going? Still working off Misao mojo?_

Hiyori sent a message back.

_I'm officially out of that. Going to ask my next source out on Monday_. Today was Saturday.

An instant after Hiyori sent the message, she received a reply back.

_That can wait._

Before Tamura could ask Konata what she meant by that, Izumi had sent another text message.

_I'm gonna send you an address. Meet me there at 13:00. Bring spending money._

As Hiyori waited for the address to be sent, she finished the process of drying her hair and slung the wet towel over the headrest of a chair tucked away in a corner of her room._ Hmm, I figured Konata would be excited to hear that I was moving onto my next date. What would be more important to her to cause her to tell me to "Wait?"_

A moment after that thought was finished Tamura received another message from Izumi, containing the address. After studying the address for a split second, the artist made a sudden gasp. _I recognize this! This… This is in Akihabara!_

-o0o-

Hiyori Tamura had been to Akihabara but a handful of times in her life. Akihabara was a shopping district of Tokyo where, among other things, otaku goods and such related things were sold. For otakus, this was their Mecca, a place to visit if their lives could be called "complete."

The artist's eyes were helpless to wander and gaze at the sights about her: the building lined with bright signs, the ever constant clamor of shoppers, the smell of… stuff. _What? I can't **always** give perfect descriptions? What do I look like? A thesaurus?_

Hiyori's attire, given this time of the year (being dead center in midst of winter) was befitting. She wore a heavy winter coat of deep navy blue, a pink scarf around her neck, a pink stocking cap atop her head, and a regular pair of denim jeans. As she walked down the crowded street, she checked her cell phone once more to look at the address. Quickly realizing she had no idea where to look, she resorted to asking random people that passed by.

She was led to the third floor of a seemingly inconspicuous building, located between an arcade and a cosplay store. The stairwell was both narrow and stifling warm, forcing the artist to unzip her coat and remove her cap, tucking it into a pocket of her coat. The door at the very top of the third set of stairs had a paper sigh that was taped to the front. It simply read "Cosplay Café." _Figures she would send me here._

Hiyori reached out to knock on the door, but before her knuckles could even make contact, the door open up, revealing Izumi (in an exceptionally convincing Haruhi Suzumiya costume) on the other side.

Winking an eye, Konata greeted Hiyori with a grinning "Good afternoon, Master."

"… Master?" Tamura asked back.

"Come on it, Hiyori. I reserved a table for you."

Hiyori stepped inside and took a look at her surroundings. The room's center was set up with six or seven small wooden tables, each with four wooden chairs. The entire right wall was a small stage, complete with lights that hung from the ceiling and a pair of speakers that stood on tripods. There seemed to be a few other patrons to the café already there. One table in particular had a paper sign propped on it with the word "Hiyorin" written in marker. _I guess that's me?_

As soon as the artist took a seat, Konata (Haruhi) plopped a menu in front of her and stated "_Call me when you've made up your mind,_" then walked off.

Hiyori picked up the tiny paper menu and gave it a quick glance. _Everything here's kind of… basic: Fried noodles, fried rice, miso soup. The drinks aren't that complicated either: Coke, tea… lemon-lime?_ Lifting her eyes from the menu, Tamura spotted Konata talking with another cosplayer (who happened to be Itsuki Koizumi.) As they talked, Koizumi's eyes darted between Izumi and Hiyori. _What the heck is she saying to him?_

A minute later, Haruhi returned. "_You done yet?_" she interrogated.

"Uh, Kona-chan, what's with the attitude?" Hiyori asked.

A second later, her familiar cat-like grin materialized on the blue haired girl's face. "Hey, it's just my character. Don't take it personally." An instant after that, the grin vanished. "_So are you done or what?_"

Tamura glanced at the minuscule menu once more. "Uh… I guess I'll have the noodles and… the lemon-lime, I guess." she ordered.

Snatching the paper from the artist's hand, Haruhi stated to her girlfriend that "_A ten minute wait is required for the noodles to be made up._"

"That's fine."

"_I'll be back with your drink shortly._" With that Haruhi left.

Hiyori passed the time by both strumming her fingers on the table and looking around her once more. She recognized the costumes of the others that were eating here: others from "Haruhi Suzumiya," Edward and Roy of "Full Metal Alchemist," not to mention a group of four "Naruto" cosplayers that sat as a group at one table. _This place suits Konata well. So she actually **works** here? I never knew she had a job._

Konata retuned with Hiyori's drink which, upon her tasting it, turned out to be nothing more than Sprite served with ice in a tall, skinny glass. "So, how do you like the place?" Izumi asked.

"Uh, it's pretty cool," Tamura replied. "Hey, Kona-"

"_Eh?_"

"Oh, sorry, _Haruhi_, what were you saying to that guy over there?"

"_Koizumi? We discussed official S.O.S Brigade business. Nothing that concerns you._"

"I'm being serious," Hiyori then stressed, giving Izumi a quick glare.

"Don't worry, I didn't tell the guys her _too_ much about us," Konata reassured the artist.

"_Too_ much? What _exactly_ did you tell them?" _Knowing Konata, there was probably not a lot she left unsaid._

"Don't worry, Hiyorin. I've been a good girl, promise." _There! She actually **called** me "Hiyorin." I just thought that was a typo on the sign, either that or I misread her handwriting (her Kanji is terrible.) But **Hiyorin?**_

"The noodles will be done shortly," Izumi then said to Tamura. "The guys allowed me to get out a few minutes early so we can eat together, ok?"

"O-Ok…"

Once more, Izumi went off only to return a few minutes later holding two items: in one hand was a plate that held a mound of cheap noodles, slathered in a thick soy sauce, and in the other hand was a bowl of _equally _cheep ramen. Placing the former in front of Hiyori, Konata sat across the table from the artist.

"So, Kona-chan," Hiyori started off, "I didn't know you had a job."

Being mid-bite, Izumi finished chewing before responding. "Yep," she said back. "It's only part-time though, which kind of sucks. I like this job. Once we graduate, I'll need to get another job."

"So is this what you do all day? Cosplay and serve people food?"

"It's not _all_ we do. Every hour _on_ the hour Mikuru, Yuki, and I get on stage and perform 'Hare Hare Yukai.' Oh, that reminds me!" Turning herself around in her chair, Konata spotted the Mikuru cosplayer from across the room and waved her over. Her costume was not the North High uniform (as Izumi's was) but was instead the pink maid outfit she wore in the Brigade's clubroom. It took Hiyori a few seconds before she realized who the girl was.

"Hey, I know you!" Tamura suddenly exclaimed. "Patricia?"

The blonde giggled. "Yep, that's right," she said back, "and _you're_ Hiyori Tamura, right?"

"Yes… I don't think we've actually met, have we?"

"Hmm, nope, don't think so."

"Then how did you know my name?"

"Oh Konata has told me about you," Martin explained, much to the worry of Hiyori.

"That so?… And what _exactly_ has she told you?" the bespectacled girl then interrogated.

Patricia gave a nervous look. "Um… That's classified?" she said back. _Figures_.

"Ah, keeping in-character," Izumi commented. "Good job, Mikuru!"

_Maybe it's best I **don't** know…_

-o0o-

When the couple's lunch was finished, Hiyori and Konata left the café together and made off into the crowded streets of Akiba. Under the coat and scarf Izumi now wore, she insisted on wearing her Haruhi costume out of the restaurant (much to Hiyori's bewilderment.) She even had the gold hair ribbon still on.

"Hey, Konata?" Tamura asked at one point during their walk, "what's with calling me 'Hiyorin' all of a sudden?"

Konata reached her right arm over and interlocked with the artist's left arm, then clinging to it tenderly. "Does my little Hiyorin not like her new name?" the otaku asked playfully, all the while grinning.

"N-No, I _do_ like the name," she said back, a pink blush forming on her cheeks, "it was just sudden is all. You can call me 'Hiyorin' if you want to."

"Aww, you're so cute when you get embarrassed, you know that? Yep, that's my Hentai Hiyorin." _Please don't call me that. For the love of **GOD** please don't call me that._

"So, Kona-chan, let me guess… taking me to your work wasn't the only thing you had in mind today, right?"

"What, am I _that_ transparent?"

"_That_ and the fact you're taking me in a direction _away_ from the station. So, where _are_ you taking me?"

"A karaoke place," Izumi replied. "Me, Tsukasa, Kagami, and Miyuki went there once had a great time."

"K-Karaoke?" Tamura echoed with sudden fear in her voice. "Uh, Kona-chan, I'm not a very good singer."

"Aw, that's ok; I'm not that good either. It'll be just for laughs, ok?"

_That's just what I'm worried about, that you'll laugh._

Entering the karaoke club, Izumi immediately made for the desk and asked the woman behind it "Is Room 301 available?"

The woman quickly checked the list and replied, "Indeed it is. How long would you like to stay for?"

"Two hours, please." _We just finished explaining to each other that we suck at singing! And now she rents a room for two **hours?** What is she thinking?_

"Ok," said the woman again, "that comes to seven thousand yen, please." _Seven thousand?_ With seemingly no hesitation, Izumi retrieved her wallet, took out the appropriate amount and handed it to the woman, who in return gave her the room key. "Enjoy your stay."

Hiyori followed Izumi down the white and green hallway to their intended room. "Uh, Konata," she said during their approach, "isn't that a little expensive for just karaoke?"

"Nah, not really," the otaku said back casually. "The 'three hundreds' are the premium rooms. The first two drink and food orders are free, no matter what you get… Ah, we're here!" Izumi stopped in front of a door, the tablet above reading "301" and, using the key, the door opened.

Konata gestured Hiyori to enter first and so she did. The room was small, perhaps nine by fourteen feet in dimension. Against the right corner adjacent to the door was a maroon wrap-around couch and placed before it was a small glass coffee table. Against the far wall was a large flat screen table, connected to an expensive MVD Karaoke Recorder. _That_ was connect to two mics, both of which were held in stands.

Both taking a seat on the couch, Hiyori began to skim the song catalog in the search of a song she would like. So far, she came up with very little. "Ugh, there's a lot of songs here," Tamura commented aloud, "but I'm not finding anything I like-"

"Oh Hiyorin," said Izumi suddenly, "you still don't get it, do you?"

Confused by Izumi's statement, the artist lifted her gaze off the pages and onto Konata. "Eh?"

"Do you _really_ think I brought you here to _sing_?" the otaku asked, her tone becoming more and more mischievous.

"You mean you didn't? Then why did you- _Oh_…" _Very sneaky, Kona-chan. Very sneaky._

With her girlfriend finally coming to the full realization of her situation, Konata crept herself to her right across the couch, toward Hiyori. Reaching over Hiyori, Konata straddled herself atop the artist's lap and immediately the two began to lock lips. It took nearly no time at all until their kissing became French.

Rather quickly, the two girls became hot and flustered and, in response to this, both quickly flung their jackets off before resuming their embrace. In the midst of their affection, after a few minutes of deep kissing and the heavy breaths that came in-between them, Konata worked her tiny hands down, up, and _under _the back of Hiyori's shirt, inching their way toward their current objective: the strap of the artist's bra.

Feeling the hands at her back, Hiyori pulled her head back slightly, breaking her lips free of their contact. "Wha- What are you-?" she asked breathily. But by the time Hiyori had asked, the otaku had already finished her work. Removing her hands from behind Tamura, Izumi now dangled in front of the artist _her_ baby blue bra.

"… How in the world did you do that?" Hiyori whispered to her lover.

"Practice," Konata whispered back, placing the article of clothing next to Tamura on the couch.

"Well then, _Haruhi_, in _that _case," Hiyori suddenly reached downward and shot _her_ hands up the back of Konata's shirt, "I'm just gonna take _yours_ off… Just as soon and I can _find_ it… Where the hell _is_ the damn thing!"

"Oh, I don't wear one," Izumi casually stated.

"… Well that's _bullshit_," Hiyori snapped back with a grin.

Konata grinned back. "Don't worry, Hiyorin, we still have at least an hour and a half left. Let's see how much _more_ we can get off each other…"

-o0o-

The phone within the karaoke booth rang and, being the closest to it, Hiyori reached up and knocked the phone off its receiver. "… Hello?" her tired voice asked into the reliever.

"Room 301," said a female voice from the other end, the same woman from behind the desk, "your two hours are up. Are you finished or would you like to take a fifteen minute extension?"

After being offered that question, Hiyori glanced over to her left, to the shirtless otaku sitting next to her. Seeing that her face showed quite the content and satisfied look (as she had maintained the same cat-like grin for the last twenty minutes,) Tamura said into the phone "No, I think we're set, thank you. We'll be out soon."

Tamura hung up the phone and, turning back to Izumi, regretfully informed her that "Our time is up. We have to leave."

"Aww, so soon?" Konata said back in a mock pout.

"Yep, now get your clothes on." Slowly the couple got up from the couch and began to put back on the articles of clothing that had been thrown off in the previous bout of passion. As the pieces were clad, one by one, Hiyori said to Konata "You know, Kona-chan, there _was_ someone we forgot to add to my list of sources."

"There _was_?" the otaku asked in disbelief. "Who?"

"One of _your_ friends: Miyuki Takara." she explained.

"… UGH! I am such an _idiot!_ How could I overlook the Mistress of Moe herself! Hiyorin, _please_ tell me that you're going to do Miyuki!"

"Actually, I thought that I'd forego Ayano for now and move on to Takara." The artist suddenly felt Konata's warm arms wrapped around her still shirtless body from behind. Intentionally or not, her hands were firmly clasped around Hiyori's breasts. "Oh thank you, thank you, _thank you_!" the otaku squealed with joy.

"Y-Your welcome," Hiyori said back, "now _please_, let go."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Ok, _**I**_ forgot all about Miyuki! How is that possible? Well, regardless, she _will_ come in the next chapter. :)

Also, for those who don't know, "hentai" is Japanese for '"perverted" (I believe.) I know the word has a different meaning in the U.S, but I just thought I'd clear that up.


	6. Miyuki

Chapter 6

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Just a quick thing about the last chapter. To clarify, Hiyori and Konata did not actually "do it." Yes, their shirts and bras _were_ removed, but that was it. With that information, I'll let you guys guess as to what they did with each other. XD

* * *

In her initial throws of gaining a get-together with a friend with the intent of gaining "inspiration" from them, Hiyori was, understandably, nervous. But with three dates garnered (if you disregard her meeting with Tuskasa and her second outing with Konata, being those dates she _herself_ did not set up), Tamura was now quite confident in her abilities to gain kisses from her fellow peers. Just as she promised her girlfriend Konata, Hiyori's next source would be the "Mistress of Moe" Miyuki Takara.

In opposition of her other attempts at setting up dates, Hiyori decided upon a less formal approach (which was odd, given her target) and decided upon a simple phone call the evening before Saturday. If asked "Why?" she chose such a method, your reply would simply be "Intuition." Izumi, with great enthusiasm, supplied the number and, at around 18:00 on Friday, the artist made the call.

The answer would come after trio of rings from the other end of the line. "Hello?" said a pleasant sounding voice.

"Hi," Hiyori said back. "It's me, Hiyori."

"Hiyori… Hiyori… Can't say I know anyone by that name…" _What the? _"You wouldn't happen to be trying to _sell_ me anything, would you?"

"… N-No. I'm friends with Minami-chan? Remember? _That_ Hiyori."

"Friends with Mini- Oh dear! This has all been a misunderstanding! You're looking for _Miyuki_, aren't you? I'm her mother, Yukari. Oh, I feel so foolish!"

"T-That ok. You _do_ sound like Miyuki over the phone." _Man, this woman's a bigger klutz than Miyuki. I hope Konata hasn't caught wind of this source of moe. If so, I think I'd be down one girlfriend real quick._ "_Is_ Miyuki there? Can I talk to her?"

"Oh, of course. Just one second, please." Hiyori then heard Yukari pull the phone away from her mouth and call out "Miyuki, dear, telephone!" A few seconds later the daughter answered. "Hello?"

"Miyuki?" Tamura asked. She still wasn't sure it was her or her mother speaking.

"Yes, this is she," Miyuki said back.

"Hey, it's Hiyori."

"Good evening, Tamura-san. I hope my mother didn't cause too much confusion. I overhead her talking on the phone from the other room."

"No, it's quite alright. I don't think I've met your mother before so it's understandable."

"So," Takara then said, "is there something you wanted to ask me?"

"Uh, actually, there was," Hiyori said back. "Uh, I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out some time. You know, for no reason."

Miyuki thought aloud with a "Hmm…" before replying "Well, I'm busy all day tomorrow after school, but the day after that I suppose you can stop by my house for a while… That is unless you had something in mind already?"

"Actually no, I didn't have anything planned," Tamura stated with honesty. "I'm fine with doing whatever _you_ want to do, Takara-san."

Miyuki thought aloud once more. "Well, I actually wasn't planning on any sort of outing. I was content on having a peaceful day at home… Hey, maybe we could have an afternoon lunch together?"

_Afternoon lunch. You mean just **lunch**, right? Man, she can make **anything** sound extravagant! Well, lunch seems like a simple thing to do, but then again, it's at **Miyuki's** house. I've been there only once before and I got to say that place is amazing!_

"Sure," the artist finally replied. "That sounds fine to me. When would it be ok for me to show up?"

Once again, Miyuki thought aloud. "I guess Noon would be fine. Preparations should be done by then." _Preparations?_ "Oh, by the way, do you like _fugu_?"

_Blowfish?_ "Uh actually, I've never tried it before," Hiyori replied. _That's because I don't want to die._

"Really? You haven't? Oh then I _must_ have some prepared then. I'll see you in a couple of days then, ok? Bye!"

"Bye," Hiyori said back before handing up her cell phone and placing it back onto her nightstand. Even though her conversation with Takara was over, the artist's mind was still mulling over the last question she was proposed: "Do you like _fugu_?"

_Well, better start writing my will and testament now. After Saturday, after the meal Miyuki is preparing, I **just** might no longer be amongst the living…_

-o0o-

Three days had passed since Kagami's sudden and unexpected moment with her sister and even _still_ the memory of it burn within the Hiiragi's brain hotter than the embers of a bonfire. On the very same evening the young artist made her call to the Takara residence, Kagami mulled over the aforementioned thoughts in the silence of her room with her back resting atop her bed and her cobalt eyes fixed to the ceiling.

"_Why?_" she began to ask herself (a question she had asked many times already.) "_What would make you just do **that** all of a sudden… Tsukasa said that she met with Hiyori earlier that day… **Hiyori**. She **must** be the cause of this, there's no other explanation. Just what the hell did she say to Tsukasa!_

_ That's it. I'm tired of thinking about it. I'm finding this out right now._

With that bold self declaration, the twin tailed girl lifted herself off her bed and, exiting her room, marched right to the door of Tsukasa's room. She gave the courtesy of knocking three times but did _not_ give the courtesy of waiting for her sister to say "Come in." Instead, Kagami let _herself_ in, throwing the door open with one powerful push.

Tsukasa was also on her bed. But she, rather, was lying atop her stomach and her nose was buried in a manga. Hearing the door open, she turned to Kagami and greeting her with a warm "Hey Onee-chan. What's up?"

"Tsukasa," Kagami replied, _her_ tone none to warm, "we need to talk. _Now_."

Quickly recognizing said tone, Tsukasa closed her book, brought herself upright on the bed, and turned to face her sister. "Yes?" she then asked nervously.

"Uh…" she began with apprehension. "Tsukasa, you said you met with Hiyori, right?"

"Y-yes…" was her reply.

"Well, what did you two do?"

"Nothing really. We went to that café a few blocks from the school. You know the one, right? We've been there before."

"Oh yeah, I know which one- Wait, I'm getting off track. What did you two do _at_ the café?"

Tsukasa paused. "We talked," she finally replied.

"About…?" Kagami then interrogated.

"… Stuff…"

"What _kind_ of stuff, Tsukasa?" Kagami's tone was _now_ quickly reaching one of irritation.

"… Just regular stu-"

"Ugh, this is getting me nowhere!" Kagami exclaimed aloud, catching her sister off guard. "Damn it. Might as well just let out with it… Tsukasa, why the hell did you kiss me?"

The sister voiced a sharp gasp, her face turning pink in the blink of an eye. "Uh… Well… I was… curious."

"… _Curious_?" Kagami asked back in disbelief. "You were _curious_?"

"Y-Yeah… I wanted to know how Hiyori felt when she-"

"Hiyori! So you two talked about _that_, didn't you!" Kagami didn't need to explain what _that_ was. Tsukasa knew what she meant.

"W-Well, sort of," Tsukasa finally admitted, "but it wasn't like she _told_ me to-"

"Tsukasa, I want you to forget _everything_ Hiyori told you," Kagami told her sister. "She's a sick, perverted person and I don't want you to be around her anymore!"

"B-But onee-chan, Hiyori isn't really like that! Actually, I think she made me realize something!" Tsukasa paused. "She made me realize that I think I lo-"

"I don't want to hear another word, Tsukasa! If I see you with Hiyori again… well, you just stay away and you won't need to find out what happens!" With that one final threat, Kagami stormed out of her sister's room, making sure to slam the door behind her.

In her rage, Kagami was now deaf to the weeps that now emanated from behind the door of Tsukasa's room.

-o0o-

Two day's time brought our aspiring artist to the gate of the Takara homestead. Already Hiyori was taken back at just how nice and classy the architecture of the exterior looked. Approaching the iron gate, Hiyori approached the buzzer (complete with miniature television display) and buzzed twice. A moment later, Miyuki's headshot appeared in full color from the screen.

"Good afternoon, Tamura-san," she greeted with a smile. "Just one moment. I will unlock the gate." the screen went black and a second later the lock for the gate popped open with a metal clang. The artist let herself in and, closing the gate behind her, approached the front entrance of the home.

After knocking, she was met almost immediately by the sight of Miyuki opening the door from the other side. "I'm glad you could come," she said to Hiyori politely.

"Thanks again for letting me come over," Tamura said back, giving a respectable bow.

"Please, come inside from the cold. Preparations were finished just a few minutes ago. Please, follow me."

Hiyori was led into the large foyer of the Takara Residence. Removing their shoes upon entering, the bespectacled girl was then led by Miyuki into a hallway to her left, the two passing row after row of doors. A few minutes led brought the two to something Hiyori was least expecting: a greenhouse. Built off one wall of the house, located in the backyard was a glass offset of the building, filled with lush, exotic plants and flowers. Even in the dead of winter, the greenhouse maintained a warm temperature. It was a rather tantalizing sight: seeing lush foliage separated from a deadly environment by a mere sheet of glass.

"Wow," was Hiyori's initial reaction, which caused Takara to smile.

Placed in the center of the greenhouse was a small round table with a glass surface and metal frame and legs (painted white.) Placed on opposite sides of the table was a pair of chairs, both wicker and both also painted white.

A second or two after the girls sat down, a man in a red and white caterer's uniform entered, balancing in one hand a tray that held a pair of glasses holding ice water and the other hand holding a water pitcher. After he served the two, he made his leave of the greenhouse.

Hiyori took that moment to ask Miyuki the question she had been itching to ask since she had arrived at her home. "Miyuki, why did you ask if I liked blowfish?" she asked.

"Oh, I just thought it would be a nice thing to serve," was Miyuki's reply.

"But isn't blowfish _poisonous_?"

"Yes, but when properly prepared it's rather delicious. Don't worry, Hiyori, the catering company we hired was one we've hired many times in the past. Their sushi chefs have been preparing fugu dishes for many years."

After hearing this straight from Miyuki's mouth, Hiyori heaved a heavy sigh of relief. "Whew! Thanks for telling me that. That makes me feel much better… Say, what _exactly_ did you have made?"

"_Fugu- sashi_," Miyuki replied, "thinly sliced raw blowfish served with ponzu sauce. We were lucky enough to get the 'Tora-fugu' for this occasion."

"… What's the difference?" Hiyori asked.

"The tora-fugu is considered the most poisonous of the blowfish." _What the fu-?_ "But it's also considered the most delicious."

"… Miyuki, am I going to die?" Tamura then asked, the fear of such a fate clearly showing on her pale face

Takara giggled. "Of course not," she replied casually. "_I_ wouldn't allow it." _That's… reassuring_?

The waiter reentered the greenhouse holding with both hands the tray of tora-fugu. There was at least fifty or more cuts of the fish on the platter, arranged into the shape of a blooming lotus blossom. The center of the "fishy flower" was a small bowl of the yellowish ponzu. "Enjoy," said the waiter before leaving the girls to their lunch.

Picking up her chopsticks and putting a smile to her face, Miyuki declared "Well, let's eat!" Hiyori watched in astonishment as the woman across from her, with not a _shred_ of hesitation in her actions, picked at random a slice of the fish, dipped it partly into the ponzu, and popped it into her mouth to chew.

_Is this chick insane! She's eating the most poisonous blowfish there is and she doesn't even look scared!_ The artist continued to watch as she gleefully ate three more cuts, all without showing fear.

When Miyuki reached her utensil down for her fifth piece, she finally noticed that her friend had not eaten one piece at all. "Something wrong?" she asked Hiyori. "You haven't had a single bite. Why is that?"

"Why?" Tamura asked in deadpan. "I'm _terrified_, that's why!"

"Terrified? For what reason?"

"Wha-? Because I don't want to die! Miyuki, aren't you afraid that you'll get poisoned from eating this?"

"… No, not really," Miyuki said back nonchalantly.

"Why _not?_"

"Well, if the blowfish here _did_ have traces of the poison left on it… I guess I'd be dead right _now_."

_Holy shit!_ "That quickly? My God, why would you do this to yourself, Miyuki?" Hiyori then asked.

Her response was nothing she expected. "… I guess sometimes," Takara replied, "you just have to _do it_, you know?"

_… Damn. Even if she wasn't aware of it herself, that was quite a profound thing to say. To enjoy something like eating blowfish, she practically let go of her fears. Yes, there **does** exist the possibility of death in doing this, but when you think about, nearly **everything** carries such a risk. I guess the only way people can get though the day with the knowledge that they could go at any second is because… we just don't think about it._

The artist finally picked up her utensils, much to the surprise of Miyuki. _Just clear your head of the consequences…_ Picking the cut closest to her, she (without dipping it) placed it onto her tongue, closed her lips, and began to chew.

"Well, how do you like it?" Takara asked before eating another piece herself.

The young artist paused, the pale fear of her face slowly fading away, replaced with her regular complexion. "… It's _good_," Hiyori finally replied, a huge smile materializing on her face. "It's _really_ good! It's… _delicious_!"

The pinkette smiled. "Try it with the ponzu," she suggested. Taking another piece, Hiyori dipped the slice in the center bowl before eating it. Her reaction _this_ time was double what it previously was and soon the artist was eating piece after piece, one after another.

Miyuki giggled at her friend's complete turn-around in disposition. "So, I guess you're over the thought of death," she said sardonically.

"Hey," Hiyori said back, "if I die, I'll die with a full stomach and satisfied taste buds!" Miyuki laughed once more.

-o0o-

When their afternoon lunch was done and after a dessert of tea and cake, Hiyori and Miyuki went to her living room. Despite the appearance of the rest of the home, the living room had a much more contemporary look to it. The room itself was small and consisted of a flat screen television on one wall, a few bookshelves against another, and a kotatsu placed in the center of the floor.

"In the winter," Miyuki began to explain upon entering the room, "mother and I bring out the kotatsu. The other seasons we usually just have a fold-out couch. Please, take a seat, Hiyori. I was going to make some more tea. Do you want some?"

"Miyuki, we've _just_ finished lunch _and_ dessert," Hiyori said back, "… but yeah, sure, I'll have some."

Miyuki then left the room for the kitchen, leaving the artist with a moment of silence with which she could think. She slipped herself beneath the surface of the kotatsu and instantly felt warmer. _Ok, putting aside the face that death could have potentially been but a bite away, today was not that bad. Miyuki is a **real** nice person. Hell, it's hard for me to see and bad in her. She seems so pure… So how the hell am I going to get a kiss from **that!**_

Takara returned a few moments later balancing two cups of tea atop a thick, hard-cover book. "What's with the book?" Tamura asked.

"It's a book of art," Miyuki replied. "Izumi-san tells me that you like to draw." _I hope that's **all** she told you._ "I thought we could both look through it?"

"Uh sure," was Hiyori's response. Miyuki, after placing the two cups atop the kotatsu, tucked herself in to Hiyori's left and opened the book to a page that had already been bookmarked. Instantly the young artist recognized the black and white illustration on the page… but could not quite name it. "I _know_ I've seen this before," Hiyori commented aloud.

"It's Gustave Dore," Takara knowledgably explained. "He is perhaps most well known for his illustrations in the literate classic 'Dante's Inferno.'"

"… Ah, yes, _that's_ why it looked so familiar- Wait, you liked Dante's Inferno? No offence, but it doesn't seem like something _you'd_ like, Miyuki."

"Well, while the subject matter is a _little_ scary, I find Dante Alidheri's view on the afterlife (or Hell, to be more precise) to be fascinating. At the time of this work's inception, it was a complete turn-around from the current view of Hell that was held by Christianity. Some actually called Dante a martyr for his work, but little did he know that he would help inspire future gene-

Eh?"

Miyuki's insightful ramblings came to a crashing halt when she suddenly felt something tough the skin of her right hand. Looking downward, she voiced a soft gasp at the sight and feel of Hiyori's left hand placed gently upon her right hand.

"… T-Tamura-san?" Takara's now shaking voice said. "D- Did you want to hold the book?"

"… Not exactly," Hiyori whispered back before looking upward and into Miyuki's eyes. This only made the pinkette more nervous. Then, Hiyori pivoted herself to her left and rising up from her knees, leaned her face in closer to Miyuki's…

But before contact of the lips was made, Takara leapt out from beneath the kotatsu and took three nervous steps back. Her trembling hands were tucked beneath her chin. "T-Tamura-san?" Miyuki repeated. "W-What do you think you are doing!"

"… Well," the artist said back, "I just thought that, maybe, we could… kiss?"

"… But w-what would make you think I would want to do _that_?" Miyuki asked back.

Hiyori opened her mouth to reply, but quickly shut it when she realized that, in fact, she had _nothing_ to say. _… Why **would** I think Miyuki would want to kiss? Hold on… Why did the **others** want to? Well Kagami- It was a mistake trying to kiss her; I ended up forcing it, so she had no reason…_

_ But Misao kissed me. She did it because she thought that **I** wanted to, also because she's loyal to friends and wants to help them whenever she can… And Konata kissed me- She **kisses** me because… She **loves** me…_

_ But Miyuki? She has no reason for doing that! I- I don't want to force myself to do this. Hell, I don't want to force thing on others **period**… But I have this writers block, and if I don't get rid of it soon…_

Takara was still standing a distance from Hiyori, fearful to reproach her after what she attempted to do. However, her trepidation suddenly seemed to vanish when Miyuki heard soft sobs from the artist, her head now low lowered toward the flat surface of the kotatsu. Slowly but surely, Miyuki inched her way back toward Hiyori and, when she finally felt it was safe to do so, she sat back down next to her friend.

"Tamura-san?" Miyuki said to her. "Is something the matter? Is something wrong?"

"… Yeah," the artist slowly replied. "Something's _really_ wrong with me. I… I started something and I'm now beginning to realize that I might not be able to get out."

Strong worry flooded onto Takara's face. "Tamura-san, please don't feel afraid to tell me. Whatever it is, I promise I won't judge you. I'll also try to help however I can."

Tamura lifted her eyes back to Miyuki "Ok…" she said. She then fell into explaining to Miyuki how this whole thing started. The artist explained how each of her dates went and how after each she gained huge stints of inspiration (she even told Takara of her surprise encounter with Tsukasa.) Miyuki was _also_ made aware of the relationship Hiyori and Konata now shared. Throughout the entire explanation, Miyuki remained silent, never going above asking a few questions.

"And so," Hiyori began to conclude, "with every date I go on, I have all this wealth of experience to draw on… but lately, the stints of inspiration have been getting shorter and shorter. If it keeps up like this… I don't know what I'm going to do. I feel normal whenever I'm drawing and when I'm not… It just doesn't feel right…"

After a pause of silence, Miyuki gave a respectable "Hmm…" before speaking further. "So when you attempted to kiss me, you were merely doing so to gain another stint?"

"Yeah," Tamura replied. "I- I hope I'm not insulting you by saying that."

"O-Oh, no, that's not it at all," Takara said back, her face showing embarrassment. "… But from the way you described it, what you're doing is starting to have an _addictive_ trait on you. What gave you long stints of inspiration before isn't giving you as much now…

Tamura-san?"

"Y-Yes?"

"I honestly think you should stop what you are doing as soon as possible."

"Stop?" Hiyori shot back. "As in _completely!_"

"Yes," Takara then stated, her voice taking a more serious turn. "I know this is probably not what you want to hear right now, but I think it would be for the best that you discontinue this method of getting inspiration. If not for yourself, do it for others: remember what happened with Tsukasa."

The artist heaved a heavy sigh. "… You're right," she said to Miyuki. "I _should_ stop. If I keep doing this, it'll only get worse… Thank you, Miyuki. Thank you so much for your help. I don't think I would have stopped if it weren't for you."

Miyuki smiled back. "You're welcome," she said sweetly back. Then, turning her gaze to her left, she peaked at the digital clock on the DVD player located below the television: 17:00. "When did you say you had to get back?" Miyuki then asked.

"Well, I never gave Mom and Dad a definite time, only that I was having lunch. I guess five hours is a long lunch, right? Maybe I _should_ head back."

"That's fine if you do. I'll walk you to the front gate." Both girls rose from the kotatsu and together they left through the front door. Stopping at the gate, the two stood before each other for a brief silent moment.

"… Thanks again, Miyuki, for everything," Hiyori thanked once more.

"Good luck to you," Miyuki said back, "in breaking the habit. I'll be rooting for you, ok?"

Hiyori grinned. "Thanks. I promise I'll try to get better… Well, I got to start heading home. See ya!" As Hiyori turned and walked off down the street, at that same moment, from the house across the street, Minami Iwasaki opened and walked through the gate of _her_ house, holding her dog Cherry by a leash. Spotting Miyuki across the street, she walked over and greeted her with a "Hello," speaking in her characteristically quiet voice.

"Oh, hello Minami," Takara said back. "Taking Cherry out for a walk?"

"Yes. Cherry needs to take one every day around this time for her to 'do her business.'" The green haired girl glanced down the street and spotted the uniformed girl from a distance. "Was that Hiyori Tamura?"

"Y-Yes," Miyuki replied. "She came over and we had lunch. We had fun."

"Oh, that's nice… Miyuki, your face is red. Is something wrong?"

"… Must be the cold…"

-o0o-

True to her promise, Hiyori, after her day with Miyuki, personally swore off making dates with her peers in order to obtain inspiration. This, however, contributed to her making absolutely _no_ works (scripts, drawings, or otherwise) for days. Still, not relying on the emotions of others gave the artist a sort of pride and, for a while, Hiyori felt free…

For a _while_…

Three days into her date-free and drawing-free period, Hiyori developed a strange tick. It began small and nearly unnoticeable: an itch on the wrist of her left arm (her writing arm.) At first, a simple scratch alleviated the itch, but by the time Saturday rolled around (six days after her swearing off dating) the itch had become _persistent_. No amount of scratching would make the itch go away.

On said day's evening, the young and now _suffering_ artist could be seen pacing back and forth across the darkness of her room, attempting to distract herself from the itch. It was to no avail. _Jesus, what is with this itch! I've tried all the damn ointments and creams in the medicine cabinet of the bathroom but **none** of them worked!... I think I'm crazy for asking myself this, but I wonder if this is linked to me giving up the dates…_

_ No, I can't start thinking about that. Not now. I've made it through nearly a week so far. I'm not going to give up now, not after getting this far. Besides, I never want to use another person for my personal gave. Never again- GAH!_

A sudden, _shooting_ pain ripped through the artist's left arm at that moment, causing Hiyori to clutch the afflicted arm with the other and drop to the floor onto her knees. _Shit! That pain! It's like my arm was being stabbed with knives made of ice. Damn, it was even worse than menstrual pains!_

When another stabbing pain entered the left arm, Hiyori had had enough. _That's it! I can't take this anymore! I have to do something about this! But I can't go back to using people like I did. Damn it! What do I- Konata! **She **might be able to help ease this damn itch._

Hiyori quickly grabbed her cell phone and dialed Izumi's number. "Hello?" Konata answered a few agonizing rings later.

"Konata, it's Hiyori," Tamura quickly answered. "I _need _to see you."

There came a pause from the other end of the line. "You _need_ to see me?" Izumi repeated playfully. "Is this what I _think_ it is?"

"Yes, it is," the artist instantly replied. "Can I come over your house tomorrow?" _Please say yes!_

"Well, I guess you- Wait, you want to come over _my_ house? You've never been over before. Are you sure you-?"

"Yes yes, so can I come over?"

"Uh… Sure, why not. But what about Dad? Before you seemed nervous when I talked about him."

"I'll take my chances. See you tomorrow."


	7. Ayano

Chapter 7

_Damn, my arm still itches like freakin crazy! Thank God Kona-chan let me come over on such short notice. I swear, if I had to endure this itch and pain… I don't know what the hell I would have done! Ah, there's her house. Finally._

Such were the artist's thoughts as she walked along the sidewalk and finally set her eyes on the Izumi residence, which was still a few blocks away. With her destination in sight, she quickened the pace of her feet, turning her walk into a near jog. Reaching the door, Hiyori took a second to catch her breath but was suddenly cut short when another sharp pain returned to her left arm._ AGH, damn that hurts. Ugh, the sooner I get inside the better._

Tamura rand the doorbell and, not six seconds later, the door flew and Konata quite literally threw herself into Hiyori, wrapping her arms around her waist and burying her face betwixt her bosom. "Hiyorin!" she gleefully exclaimed.

Hiyori's initial reaction was to quickly look around her, to see if there were any onlookers. She was slightly relieved to see that there were none. "Jeez, Kona-chan," Hiyori whispered, "can't you wait? Someone can see us. Your _dad_ can see us!"

The otaku lifted her face from the artist's clothed cleavage and looked up. "Don't worry," Konata assured Hiyori. "Dad's in the living room watching television. He won't see us."

"Well good," Tamura sighed from relief. "So… can we go to your room or-?"

"Actually, Dad kind of wants to meet you… I _might_ have told him a few things about you."

"W-Wha? What did you-? You didn't tell him about _us_, did you?"

"Oh no, he's still oblivious to _us_. Don't worry about that." Konata then grabbed Hiyori by her left wrist and said "Come on, follow me."

Izumi pulled Hiyori through the threshold of the house and, after shutting the door behind her and kicking off her shoes, was led into the living room. There, tucked beneath a kotatsu in the center of the room was Konata's father: Sōjirō, a thin man with short blue hair who wore traditional Japanese clothing. He was at the moment watching a news program on the television, which was running for perhaps the one hundredth time today the story of young girls being approached by men near school grounds.

"Hey Dad," Konata said as she and Hiyori entered the living room, "I want you to meet Hiyori."

Sōjirō, at the hearing of Tamura's name, pivoted himself around and greeted the bespectacled girl with a smile. "Ah, so _you're_ Hiyori," he said to her. "I've heard a lot about you from Konata." _What **exactly** have you heard?_ "Nice to finally meet you."

Hiyori gave Sōjirō a bow. "Thank you for allowing me over on such short notice," she said.

"No, please, it's no problem at all… Konata tells me that you like to draw, is that right?"

"Uh, y-yeah, that's right," the artist said back nervously. "I also write short stories and things like that."

"Really?" said Sōjirō with newly peaked interest. "I'm an author myself. I write short stories as well. Actually, I could lend you a hard copy of one of my more recent works if you'd like."

_Wow, he seems very open about his work. I've heard from Konata's friends that her dad is ever weirder than her, but he doesn't seem that weird at all. _"Uh sure, if it's not too much of a problem."

Sōjirō rose from beneath the kotatsu. "I'll just go grab a copy. Be back in a second," he said before passing Hiyori and Konata into the hallway and entering another room near the foot of the staircase.

"… Uh, Kona-chan," Hiyori asked at length, "what _exactly_ does your dad write?"

Izumi shrugged her shoulders and replied casually, "Just stuff, you know."

Before Hiyori could ask further, Sōjirō emerged from the room holding a small, hard covered book. "Here," he said as he placed the book in Hiyori's hands. The artist examined the cover: a drab brown with no cover art or a _title_ for that matter. However, opening the cover to the first page revealed the title.

Tamura's face went pale in an instant.

_The Geisha's White Make-Up Is Actually Semen_

_ … What. The. Fuck. Is. This! Is this really what Konata's dad writes? No wonder Konata is the way she is today… Not that I'm complaining…_ Tamura's fingers, which still clutched the book, were now trembling and, slowly, the artist lifted her uneasy eyes back up to Sōjirō.

"This is a prototype that was made before the book was actually published," Sōjirō explained. "I'm usually not one to brag, but I think this is one of my best works to date. If you do get to finishing it, I'd really like to hear what you thought of it."

"… Uh, s-sure," Hiyori replied before slowly turning to Konata. "Kona-chan, can we go? _Please_?"

"Oh yeah, sure," Izumi said back. "Hey Dad, we'll just be in my room, ok?"

"Ok honey. If you two get hungry at all, I'll be happy to whip something up. Have fun you two." With that Sōjirō returned to his position under the kotatsu and with his eyes back on the television screen, Konata grabbed Hiyori by a wrist and led her back into the hallway and up the stairs.

Konata opened the door to her room and let Hiyori enter first before she entered herself and locked it behind her. "Sorry if my dad sort of freaked you out. He doesn't get embarrassed over stuff like you do," she said as she turned back around to Hiyori. "But then again that's what makes you so cute-"

In an instant Konata found herself pin against the door by Hiyori, her lips and tongue forcefully pressed upon hers. Initially Izumi was caught quite off-guard, but quickly remembering that this was Tamura's intent all along, Konata quickly matched her girlfriend's actions. The otaku then walked herself forward (forcing Tamura to walk backwards) and the two fell backwards onto Izumi's bed.

Once there, their affection continued to escalate more and more. To keep this story at a "T" rating, I cannot go into too much detail as to what their actions were, but I _will_ tell what the end results of their little romp was: both girls, their chest heaving with satisfied breaths, laid adjacent to each other on Konata's bed. The only clothing that remained on their bodies (save Hiyori's glasses, which should go without saying) was the lower halves of their underwear. Everything else was scattered haphazardly on the floor next to the bed.

After a few minutes of catching her breath, Izumi turned her gaze to her left to look at Hiyori. "… Now _that_ was fun," she whispered to the artist.

"Yeah…" Hiyori whispered back in a huge sigh. "Better than karaoke."

Izumi giggled as she sat her near naked body upright on the bed. "So, Hiyorin, what was this all about?" she then asked Tamura.

Hiyori sat herself up in response to the question. "Eh?"

"Why the sudden urge to screw? I mean don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you did, but what brought this up?"

As Hiyori silently thought up an excuse to tell Konata, she finally realized that the itch and pain in her left arm was completely gone._ Thank God my idea worked. I honestly don't think I could have survived another day of that. I'm still not terribly happy that I needed to use Konata to help me, but right now I'm just glad I'm rid of the itch._

"Oh, nothing," she finally replied on the spot. "Just… felt like it, I guess."

Izumi raised an eyebrow at the artist's reply, causing her to think that she wasn't buying it, but the otaku then shrugged her shoulders. "Well, hope you 'feel like it' soon… So, how did your date with Miyuki go?" she then asked.

_Damn it. I knew she was going to ask this eventually._ "Uh, it went fine," Hiyori lied on the spot.

"Ah, so I bet you've been making works with lots of _meganekko_ characters, right?"

"S-sure…"

"Sorry, I forgot. Who's next on the list, Hiyorin?"

Tamura thought for a moment before replying "Ayano."

"Oh, she might be a tough nut to crack," Izumi commented.

"Why's that?" Hiyori asked.

"Because she already has a _boyfriend._ Plus, Misao told me once that she has a hidden rage that she unleashed when she's mad."

_Oh yeah. I've heard of her boyfriend, but I've never actually seen him before. In fact, I don't think **any** of my friends know who he is. Maybe I can find out during our date…_ "Eh, I'm not worried about that," the artist continued, putting confidence into her voice. "I'll get what I want."

Her declaration was met with Konata scooting herself over and nestling her head and chin on Hiyori's left shoulder. "That's my Hiyorin for ya," she said with a grin.

_… Konata really does love me, doesn't she? Even though she's never actually said it to me, I think I can just tell…_ Hiyori met Konata's cuddle by resting her head against Izumi's. "… Kona-chan," the artist then whispered into her lover's ear, "… I love you…"

"… I love you too," Konata whispered back.

_Good. It's official..._

-o0o-

Hiyori left the Izumi residence later that day feeling as if the world and all its problems had been lifted from her shoulders. Not only was she free of the pain of her afflicted arm, but she finally heard straight from her girlfriend's mouth those three blissful words: _I love you_. The artist had never felt happier…

But when the evening of that same day came around, Hiyori was plunged back into despair. The itch and pain of her left arm returned in full force, causing the artist to further curse her existence. That night, she came to the quick and hurried decision to ask Ayano on the date _tomorrow_.

-o0o-

"Hiyori!" came an older woman's voice from the base of the staircase. "Get your butt out of bed! You're going to be late for school!"

Hiyori groaned herself upright on her bed, out from beneath the warmth of her blankets. Her afflicted arm had caused the artist to lose much of last night's sleep. She awoke this day feeling none too good. Further groaning her actions out, Hiyori got out of her beg, gave herself a quick shower, got dressed into her uniform, and headed downstairs to the kitchen.

Standing in front of the stove, cooking up a portion of omelets was Hiyori's mother: Kazumi. If she were to stand next to her daughter, there would be _no_ denying that they were related; Hiyori was the _absolute_ spitting image of her mother. Nearly every physical characteristic Kazumi had Hiyori inherited: eyes, complexion, hair (which Kazumi tied into a ponytail), body, and many others. Like her daughter, Kazumi wore glasses: a thin, rectangular pair that, in the midst of her cooking, sat on the very tip of her nose. Over her plain morning clothing (lavender sweatpants and an emerald t-shirt) Kazumi wore a white apron (which she always wore while cooking.)

Hearing her daughter's footsteps enter the room, Kazumi greeted her with a semi-cheerful "Good morning." When she received no reply back, she instantly got peeved. If there was one thing Kazumi disliked, it was impoliteness. "I _said_ 'Good morning,'" she repeated.

"Ugh," groaned Hiyori back. That only succeeded in pushing her mother's irritation further. Kazumi finally turned herself around to look her daughter in her eyes; her tired, hooded eyes that adorned slight bags beneath them. "What's up with you?" she asked, putting her hands to her waist, "take grumpy pills this morning?"

"No," the artist groaned back. "Sorry Mom, I'm not feeling too good this morning."

"Not good enough to not go to school?"

That was the _last_ thing Hiyori wanted to do. If she did, she would be _forced_ to endure another day of her afflicted arm. "No, not _that_ bad," she responded as she finished spreading jam on a piece of toast and taking a bite.

"Well good," Kazumi stated, turning herself back to the stove. "So what's wrong? Are you sick?"

"Uh no, not really. I don't have a bug or anything like that."

"Good. You know how your father worries whenever one of us gets sick." Hiyori's father, who everyone of the Tamura household (Kazumi included) called "Dad," was a translator who worked out of the home. His works included manga and anime scripts (which he translated into English.) Though his appearance and demeanor screamed "slacker," he was, by all means, a good father.

Once finished with her first piece of toast, Hiyori quickly ran herself upstairs to fetch her book bag and on the way out the door, snatched the second slice of jammed toast. "See you later," Hiyori deadpanned as she walked out the door.

A few minutes after Hiyori left, another pair of feet sounded walking down the stairs before entering the kitchen. Without even looking, Kazumi knew who it was. "Morning, Dad," she greeted.

"Morning," he replied back after heaving a large yawn. "Dad" had somewhat broad shoulders, long black hair, a 5-o'clock shadow (it had been a while since his last shave), and an almost vacant look in his eyes. His attire was a simple white t-shirt and a pair of plaid shorts. "Did Hiyori just leave?"

"Yep," Kazumi replied. "You just missed her."

"Dang. I wanted to talk to her before she headed off."

"You? Wanted to _talk_?" she asked half-jokingly.

"Ha ha, very funny," he deadpanned back, "but I'm serious. I wanted to talk with her about her friend: Izumi-san."

Kazumi lifted her eyes off her cooking and finally turned them to her husband. "Izumi-san?" she repeated. "About what?"

"… You mean you don't know?"

"Know _what_, Dad?"

Dad chuckled aloud. "You _really_ don't know about those two, don't you?" he then asked.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kazumi snapped.

"Well… It might be best to sit down before I tell you…"

-o0o-

The artist spotted Ayano in a crowded hallway of Ryoo High at point after the class of the day were over. Already she was feeling nervous. She was in the midst of conversation with one person she wished not to speak with: Misao. _Great. This is the end of the day so this is the last chance I can talk with her for today. But Misao's **right there**… Damn, might as well get this over with._ Hiyori walked herself over to the two and, noticing her approach, Misao waved to her, greeting Tamura with a cheerful "What's up, Hiyori!"

"Hey," Hiyori said back to her before turning her attention to the orange-haired girl. "Hey, Ayano, can I talk to you for a second."

Misao's eyes suddenly lit up with recognition, which Tamura caught out her left periphery. _Oh crap, she knows what I'm doing! Is she going to rat me out?_ Suddenly, Misao grinned. _Oh no…_

An instant later, the brown-haired girl put on a convincing embarrassed look. "Oi! I'm such an idiot," she suddenly exclaimed. "I _totally_ forgot that I had a track meeting today! Sorry Ayano but I got to split. See ya later, ok?"

"Oh, ok Misao," Ayano said back. "See you tomorrow then."

Just as Misao turned right to head down the hallway, she gave Hiyori a discrete wink of her left eye. "_Go get 'em, Hiyori_" is what that wink said. _Thanks, Misao. I owe you one._

"… So, Hiyori," Minegishi resumed, "you wanted to say something?"

"Y-Yeah," Tamura replied, taking her eyes off the distant Kusakabe. "Well, I was just wondering if you felt like, I don't know, hanging out some time?"

"Hang out?" she repeated. "What did you want to do?"

"Oh, nothing in particular. If you want to do something, I'm game."

Ayano thought aloud with a "Hmm…" before answering. "Well, I had a big day of shopping planned after for school tomorrow. I suppose you wouldn't want to do that so-"

"No," the artist interjected. "Actually, I think I'd like that. I mean, would it be ok if I tagged along?"

"Well… Sure," she said back in a gleeful tone. "I can't see why not. It'll all be in-town, so we won't have to go far. Meet in the courtyard after classes?"

"Sure. See you then."

Giving the artist another grin, Minegishi turned and headed off in another direction, disappearing into the crowd. Then, just as Hiyori was about to leave herself, she suddenly felt a familiar sensation: the back of her shirt being lightly tugged.

_What the… No, it couldn't be **her** again, could it?_ Tamura turned around to see that, indeed, it _was_ her: Tsukasa. "Tsukasa? What's up?" Hiyori asked.

She looked just as nervous as the time before. "Hiyori, could we meet up after school again?" Tsukasa asked. "Same place?"

-o0o-

As promised, the artist and Tsukasa met at the café. Sitting at the same table as before, the same drinks sat before Hiyori and Tsukasa on the table (caramel macchiato and coffee with whipped cream topping, respectively.) Taking a sip from her drink, Hiyori began their exchange.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Tamura asked Tsukasa.

"Well, it's about Onee-chan," she replied.

"Did you tell her? Did you tell her how you felt?"

"Well… I _tried_, but… But when she found out that you and I met up, she just got really _angry_ at me. She told me that she doesn't want me to be around you."

Hiyori took another nervous sip. _Man, it sounds like she's still mad at me for what I did… And she's passing that anger on Tsukasa, her own sister!_ "Tsukasa," Tamura continued, "why _does_ Onee- I mean Kagami not want us to meet?"

"She says you're 'sick and perverted'… You think she's mad about you kissing her?"

"Yeah, that's stating the obvious, Tsukasa… You said you tried to tell Kagami that you like her. What happened?"

"Just before I was about to tell her, I let it slip that you and I met. After that, it was like she no longer wanted to talk to me… We've barely spoken since that day…"

"Tsukasa, you _need_ to tell her soon. This grudge she has against me is clearly affecting your relationship. You need to show her how you feel as soon as you can, otherwise-"

"Tsukasa!"

A yell sounded from the front door of the shop. Hiyori and Tsukasa (as well as a number of the other patrons) whipped their heads toward the sound's source to see none other than Kagami Hiiragi standing in the open doorway. He sharp eyes (made more sharp from the intense glare she wore) were fixed squarely upon both her sister and Hiyori.

With fury on her face the pigtailed girl marched straight over to the table Tamura and Tsukasa sat at. "I _knew_ I'd find you here Tsukasa!" she began to scold. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Did you forget what we talked about?"_ From the way Tsukasa described it, there was no 'talking.'_

"O-Onee-chan," Tsukasa stuttered from both shock and fear. "I-I can explain-"

"Don't bother!" her sister interjected. She then reached over and grasped Tsukasa by her left wrist and jerked her from off her seat (causing her to knock into the table and spill her cream-topped coffee.) "We're going home _now_!"

Just then, as Kagami dragged her sister toward the front door of the shop, the artist shot to _her_ feet. "Now wait just a second!" she shouted in defiance at Kagami.

The twin tailed girl whipped her head around to give Hiyori an intense look. It was unlike anything she had ever witnessed before: a look of such extreme anger, rage, and fury. It was as if the very fires of Hell roared behind her eyes. As such, Tamura turned to ice and became immobile from fear. She was now helpless to stop Kagami pulling her sister out of the shop and down the sidewalk toward the train station.

Once Kagami was out of her sight, Hiyori fell backwards into her chair, heaving to herself a stuttering breath of fear. As she took rapid sips of her macchiato in an attempt to relax her nerves, her mind could not help but worry.

_Stay strong Tsukasa…_

-o0o-

Finally arriving home, Kagami continued to pull her sister behind her, her hand gripped tightly around the wrist of her left arm. She led her through the front door, straight up the stairs and into Tsukasa room. When the door was shut, Kagami _finally_ chose to speak to her sister.

"Tsukasa, what the _hell_ were you thinking!" Kagami yelled at her sister, standing a distance from her across the floor of her room. "Did I not say _never_ to see Hiyori again?" Tsukasa was silent, her nervous eyes aimed at her feet. "Well?"

Again Tsukasa chose to say nothing, so Kagami continued. "I told you to stay away from Hiyori, Tsukasa. She's sick and twisted and not someone you want to be associated with. She-"

"Onee-chan," Tsukasa suddenly said, finally speaking, "… Why do you hate Hiyori so much?"

"_Why?_ Because she- Well, she…"

"Kissed you?" Tsukasa finished.

"T-That's not the point! I already told you that I don't want you around Hiyori! Jeez, what's with you lately? First you do… _that_… and now you're not even listening to me! What are you-?" Kagami's rant was cut short when Tsukasa suddenly slammed her right foot onto the floor. With her arms straightened to her side, she finally worked up the courage to admit these four words:

"I love you, Onee-chan!"

… Kagami seemed petrified, her now awestruck eyes aimed at her sister's. The angry look she once held melted away in an instant, quickly replaced with flabbergast. "… What did you just say?" she finally whispered back.

"… I- I love you," Tsukasa repeated in a whisper. "I wanted to tell you earlier, but you wouldn't listen…"

Kagami then began to take measured steps toward her sister. Then, once within arm's length, she placed both hands on Tsukasa's shoulders. "_Oh man,_" Tsukasa thought to herself. "_I-Is Onee-chan going to accept?_" Wishing with every hope in her body this were true, Tsukasa slowly closed her eyes and began to bring her face closer to her sisters.

But instead of what she was hoping for, Kagami instead asked her "… What the _hell_ did Hiyori _do_ to you, Tsukasa?"

Her advance stopped and the short-haired girl shot her eyes open in confusion. "… W-What?" she asked back.

Kagami's grip tightened slightly as _worry_ flooded over the twin-tailed girl's face. "Tsukasa," she continued, "you need to tell me _right now_ if she did anything to you."

"W-What are you talking about?"

"Did she force you to say that? Is this another one of her sick plans…? Did she _threaten _you to say that, Tsukasa?"

"N-No!" She said back in a worried panic of her own. "She didn't force me to do anything!"

Kagami's grip tightened even further. "Stop _lying_ to me, Tsukasa! If Hiyori's forcing you to do something you don't want to do, you _need_ to tell me!"

Tsukasa's eyes were now beginning to tear up, the feeling of hopelessness and despair overcoming her. "Onee-chan," she whimpered, "I'm telling the truth… Why don't you believe me!"

Kagami shot back "Because Tsukasa would _never_ say that!"

"_… Oh no,_" the short-haired Hiiragi began to worry to herself. "_She's not believing a word I say! I- I have to make her hear me, but how?... Well, if I could do it the first time…_"

In desperation, Tsukasa suddenly launched herself forward and, wrapping her arms around her sister's chest and holding her tight, she pressed her lips against Kagami's once again. Kagami gave muffled screams of protest, but at that moment, Tsukasa could care less. She was happy enough to share _this_.

But _that_ was cut short. Kagami, positioning her hands in-between herself and her sister, pushed Tsukasa away, causing her to take a step backwards. "Gah!" she exclaimed once her mouth was free. "What the hell is wrong with you!"

"Hiyori was right," Tsukasa said back. "I needed to _show_ you how I felt."

"What the-? So Hiyori _did_ put you up to this! You've been lying all along!"

"Stop it!" she then began to plead, taking a step forward toward her sister. "Stop bad-mouthing Hiyori and _listen to me_! I really _do_ love you-"

"S-Stop saying that, Tsukasa! I'm warning you!"

"Please, Onee-chan, why won't you love me back-?"

What happened next was beyond what Tsukasa could ever thought possible.

In movements too quick for her to register until _after_ they happened, her sister raised her left hand and with a powerful swing struck Tsukasa on her right cheek. Her face was sent turning in the direction of the slap and there it remained, frozen in horror. Heaving a few shaky breaths, Tsukasa brought up her left hand and cupped the point of impact: the flesh was warm from the hit. She slowly turned her petrified eyes back to her sister.

"Do _not_ say that _again_," Kagami threatened through clenched teeth. "I don't know what Hiyori did to you, but you won't have to worry about her again. The next time I see her, she is _dead_."

Tsukasa was too petrified to speak. All she could do is stare at her sister in fear. She watched as Kagami turned away from her and left the room, making sure she slammed the door behind her. Once alone, Tsukasa staggered backwards until she fell onto her bed. Tsukasa, with her hand still cupping her cheek, began to weep uncontrollably, eventually forcing her head into her pillow to drown out her crying.

"_Onee-chan… Why won't you believe me…_"

-o0o-

As planned, Ayano met the young artist in the courtyards immediately after school. Not bothering to change into street clothing, they both set off for the downtown, clad in their uniforms. Along the way, Hiyori asked "Just where _are_ we heading?"

"Well," Ayano replied, "I'll have to stop at the bank to get some money first. Our first stop is a hardware store to get a certain type of screwdriver. Then to the grocery store to pick up a few spices and seasonings we've run out of. Then I need to buy a new bath towel for myself; the one I have now is quite old and used.

After that…" She paused. "Well, I guess that's it, I suppose."

"… Hardware store? Groceries?" Tamura repeated aloud. "It sounds like you're running errands for your parents."

"Yep, that's right, but I still have fun shopping. I guess it doesn't really matter _what_ I'm shopping for, so long as I'm doing it." _I guess that makes sense._ "Thankfully," Minegishi continued, retrieving a folded piece of paper from the pocket of her skirt, "Mom and Dad left me a list… Ah, here's the bank now."

The two reached their first destination of the day: a branch of _Tokyo National Bank_. "I'll be just a moment. You can stay out here if you want to."

Hiyori nodded back and Ayano entered through the front door. Unbeknownst to the artist, as she waited for her date with her back leaning against the brick wall of the bank, she was being spotted at that very moment by an enemy she knew not existed.

Kagami Hiiragi, stepping out of a convenience store at around the same time Ayano entered the bank, unscrewed the top of the soda she just bought and took a gulp from it. Then, as her eyes scanned to her left, in the direction of the station, they fell upon Hiyori, who stood on the opposite side of the street. From the distance she was, Hiiragi could not readily tell if indeed it was her, but nevertheless Kagami's blood began to boil.

Walking down the sidewalk in an approach of Tamura, Kagami's suspicions were proven to be correct. "_It's **her**,_" she seethed internally. "_There's the **bitch** who messed with Tsukasa's mind! She's all alone now, which means I have a chance to teach her a lesson!_"

But just as Kagami took another step toward Hiyori, a familiar face exited the set of doors to Tamurs's right. "_Ayano? What is she doing here-?_" Kagami's confusion only escalated when she saw Ayano and Hiyori then walk off _together_, toward the center of the downtown. "_What the-? What are **they** doing together? Why is Ayano hanging out with Hiyori?... Why is Hiyori hanging out with **her**… And not…_"

At that moment, a strange feeling swelled in Kagami's stomach, a feeling which, at the time, she could not quite decipher…

-o0o-

Entering the hardware store, both the artist and Minegishi were thrust out of their element. For both of them, this was a place they were not in one bit familiar with. Thankfully, an employ at the store could read the two's faces and immediately walked over to them and offered his assistance.

"Yes, is there anything I can help you two with?" the boy asked the two girls.

"Oh yes," Ayano replied. "Could you point us into the direction of the screwdrivers?" she asked.

"Screwdrivers? Third aisle, miss."

With a quick "Thank You" from both, the two schoolgirls entered the aforementioned aisle and located the section where the screwdrivers. Apart from there being many of different brands, they ranged wildly in size. "Ayano," said Hiyori as they looked-over the selection, "does that list say what _size_ screwdriver?"

Minegishi retrieved the paper once more and gave it another quick look-over. "12 mm" she replied. Then, as Tamura reached toward the appropriate size, she halted when she noticed something else. "Uh, Ayano, does it also say what _type_? Because there's two: Philips and flathead."

"Uh…" Ayano checked the list again. "It doesn't say. All it says is '12 mm.' My Dad can be forgetful like that sometimes… What should we do?"

The artist shrugged her shoulders and suggested back "Get both?"

Minegishi shrugged her shoulder back. "I guess we can't go wrong that way." So taking both, they purchased their items and left the store. "So," said Hiyori, "what's next again?"

"The grocery store," Ayano reminded. "There are only a few things there, so we won't be long." A five minute's walk then brought the two to the store and, leaving ten or so minutes later, they left with Ayano carrying another small plastic in her hands. Contained within were a few select ingredients: miso, dried eel, and curry powder among others.

Next came Ayano's bath towel. Their next store proved to be farther away than the other were, taking them twelve minutes to complete. That being said, the results of their journey (at least for Ayano) proved to be worth it. She and Tamura left the store with what Minegishi sought. In another plastic bag was a light pink towel, one corner of it adorned with a tiny chibi kitten.

With seemingly all their destinations met, Ayano and Hiyori began to head back in the direction of the station. But at one point in their walk, Ayano, stopping in front a _particular_ store, turned back around to face Hiyori. "Again, thank you so much for helping me out today," she said to the artist politely.

"No problem," Hiyori said back. "… Uh, why does it sound like you're going to abandon me?"

"Abandon? No, it's not like that. It's just… Well, there was one _other_ store I was going to visit today… But you can head on home if you wish."

"No no, it's quite alright. Besides, I've helped you out _this_ far. What's one more store?"

Ayano showed apprehension in her face. "Well, it's kind of embarrassing…" She took a few steps closer to Hiyori so that she could whisper her next words. "You see, I wanted to buy some… underwear." She blushed at uttering the last word.

"… So?" Tamura deadpanned back. "What are you embarrassed about? You think _I_ don't know about that? We _are_ both girls after all."

"Y-Yes, I know that, but I wasn't buying just _regular _underwear…" She leaned in closer to the artist. "I was _actually_ going to buy some… _intimates_." She then gave a quick glance to the building to their left, the building she stopped in front of. Hiyori looked at the building front to read the letters on the store's front window. They read in both English and Japanese "_Victoria's Secret_."

_Ho-ly crap._ Tamura gasped in shock after come to the realization. "I-Intimates?" she echoed back in a whisper. "As in like 'sexy lingerie'?"

"Y-Yeah," Ayano said back with apprehension.

_Ayano's buying **intimates**? Damn, I would have **never** pegged her to be the sort of person to buy that kind of stuff- But wait. Nobody buys that kind of stuff just for themselves. That means she must be buying for someone **else**._ "Ayano?" Tamura said. "W- Who are they for?"

Minegishi shifted nervously on her feet before responding. "Y-You know, for my boyfriend." _Of course! Her boyfriend! That makes sense- Hold on! If she's buying lingerie for her boyfriend, that means… Jesus, just how far have these two gone!_ "Since Christmas is soon, he'll come back home, so we'll meet up then…"

"H-Hiyori," Ayano continued, "if you're embarrassed, you can go if you want to. I can do this by myself-"

"No," Tamura quickly interjected. "I mean, I'm not embarrassed. I can help, if you want."

"Well…" Minegishi said as she contemplated her options, "If you _want_ to help, I guess you can… To be honest, this is actually the first time I've bought something like this. I'm actually really nervous. Plus, I guess I _could_ use some help in choosing…" The orange haired girl heaved a heavy sigh. "Ok, let's do it."

The artist followed Ayano as she slowly and nervously entered the store. She chose to remain silent and watch as Minegishi began to search the selection. Ayano looked like a child in a crowded room: lost. Twice, two different employees approached Minegishi and offered their aid. Ayano refused them outright and immediately. _I guess she really **is** embarrassed about this_.

Finally picking a bar and panty set from off a rack, Ayano turn to Hiyori and told her "I'm going to try this on, ok? Um, when I tell you, could you come in the changing room and tell me how it looks?"

"Uh, s-sure," Hiyori stuttered. _She actually wants to let me see her. A second ago she wanted to do this alone, but now she's willing to reveal herself like this? _Just as Ayano turned and began to head toward the dressing room, the piercing pain returned to the artist's left arm, causing her to clutch it and nearly to yell in agony. _Son of a bitch! **Now**, of all places, it returns! Damn, I just hope I can get what I need so it ends!_

As Ayano entered a dressing room in the back of the store, Tamura took a seat on a bench next to the door. From there she could hear the sounds of her friend undressing. In the midst of said undressing, Tamura remembered what she had said to Konata what she would try to uncover.

"Hey, Ayano?" Hiyori asked. "Can I ask you something?"

"What's that?" she asked from within the dressing room.

"Um… Your boyfriend… Who is he?"

There came a pause of silence from the room. "You mean you don't know?" she then asked.

"Ayano, _nobody_ knows who he is."

"Oh… Well, good. I've actually been trying to keep it a secret. I'm not embarrassed by him, but I'm afraid of what others will think."

"Well that's ok, you don't need to tell me if you don't want to," Tamura said, _even though I **really** want to find out who he is!_

"Ok, I'm done," Minegishi then said. "Come in and tell me how it looks." The lock to the door snapped open and the artist opened the door and stepped inside. Ayano's uniform was folded on a small bench against the right wall and, standing in the center of the room, was Ayano, stripped down and wearing nothing but her new lingerie: a thin, lacy set of black bra and panties. The artist accidentally slipped from her lips a soft gasp.

They were, by all means, provocative. This particular pair fit to Minegishi's figure perfectly. She gave Hiyori a quick spin around, showing her all of her body, and quickly asked "What do you think?" On most woman, this set would have been an instant win, but on _Ayano_…

"Well," Tamura replied slowly, "to be completely honest… it's not _you_."

Minegishi gave a tilt of her head and asked "Why's that? Isn't this like what models wear in magazines and stuff?"

"Well _yeah_, but it just doesn't work on you, Ayano. To be honest, in _this_, you look like you're trying too hard."

"… Then what would you suggest?"

The artist thought for a long moment, giving her friend's body a through look-over before finally responding. "… Pink," she said. "A light pink. I think that color would suit you better. That… or lavender. The style of it is fine, it's just the color."

Ayano thought over what Hiyori had said with an aloud "Hmm…" "I see what you mean," Minegishi said back, putting a grin to her visage. "Ok, I'll try that… Um, I'm going to _change_ now."

"Oh yeah, sorry," the artist quickly excused herself before leaving the room. After listening to Ayano redress into her uniform, she left the room, black lingerie in hand, and put it back on the rack she got it from. It then took only a few seconds for her to pick out another set of lingerie. It was identical to the first in style, but (as Hiyori advised) was pink on color.

She then returned to the dressing room and, as before, Tamura waited outside to door. As Minegishi began to change once again, she spoke. "Hiyori...? You wanted to know who my boyfriend was?"

"Y-Yeah…" she said back.

The artist heard Ayano voice a sigh from within the room. "… Ren," she finally said. "His name is Ren."

"Ren?" Tamura repeated.

"Yeah. Please keep this a secret… he's actually Misao's older brother."

_What the fu-?_ "Really?" Hiyori exclaimed. "I didn't know Misao _had_ brothers or sisters!"

"Just one brother. He's actually a sophomore in college. That's probably why you don't see or hear from him much. We've been going out for almost a year now."

"… Ayano, have you and Ren ever… done it?"

There came yet another long pause from Minegishi. "… Yeah, we have," she finally whispered. "… Um, Hiyori, you can come in now."

_Man, this is all so crazy. I knew Ayano had a boyfriend, but I never thought she was the kind of person to go that far…_ The artist rose from her seat and entered the dressing room. She was instantly awestruck at how Ayano now looked. Her intuition was correct: Ayano looked incredible in her new pink lingerie. "How does _this_ look?" she asked Tamura.

The pain of Hiyori's arm came shooting back into her and it took all of her strength to keep it from showing on her face. _GAH! I can't take this anymore! I need to rid myself of this now! I just have to do it. I just have to **force** myself, **anything** to get rid of this pain!_

In a flash, Hiyori was no longer herself. She began to take slow and measured steps toward Ayano. Her face now held an almost soulless look, her lavender eyes fixed upon her target. "You look… good," she whispered, taking further steps forward. "_Really_ good."

Ayano, becoming increasingly fearful at the artist's display, began to step backwards until she was forced into a corner of the room. "H-Hiyori," her shaking voice said, "w-what are you doing?"

In another flash, Tamura launched herself forward, grabbed Ayano by both wrists, and pinned them to the wall above her head. Her lustful eyes were now mere inches from Minegishi's. But before she could protest her friend's actions, Hiyori closed her eyes and sent her head forward and thrusted her tongue into Ayano's mouth. Minegishi struggled to release her arms, but with the full weight of Hiyori pressed on them, she could do nothing but make muffled screams.

_Damn it, I didn't want it to happen like this. After what I did to Kagami, I told myself that I would never resort to this… But the pain is so damn bad! The only way to get rid of it is when I'm drawing and the only way I can start drawing is to get inspiration… Finally, the pain is gone. Relief at last…_

Hiyori slowly opened her eyes only to be met with a terrifying sight. Like Kagami the previous day, the very fires of Hell now roared in Ayano's eyes. _Is this the hidden rage Konata warned me about?_ With a sudden burst of strength, Ayano released her right arm and, with a powerful swing, struck Tamura directly in her left temple. The force of the hit was enough to send the artist staggering backwards, falling back onto the bench on the opposite side of the dressing room.

As she rubbed her wound Hiyori looked across the room at Ayano. The fury upon her face was now unmistakable and intense beyond words. "What the _FUCK!_" she screamed at Hiyori. "What the fuck do you think you're doing!"

The artist was too petrified to speak after witnessing Ayano's unadulterated rage. Angered at not receiving a response, she sprinted at Hiyori and grabbed her at the base of her neck, gripping it tight. "You got a lot of explaining to do, bitch!"

There then suddenly came banging from the other side of the dressing room door. "Hey!" yelled a woman from the other side. "What the hell is going on in there?"

"Fuck off, bitch, we're busy!" Minegishi snapped back at the door.

"… S-Sorry," said the woman back, followed shortly after by the sound of her footsteps running away.

Ayano turned her glare right back to Hiyori as she cocked back her right fist. "You got five _seconds_ to explain yourself before I beat the shit out of you! Five." _Holy crap. She's terrifying when she's angry! _"Four."_ What the hell am I going to say! What do I say to her to calm her down!_ "Three!" _I **could** say **that**… No, I can't. I haven't had to say that to gain inspiration since Kagami, and look what happened because of that. Plus, I only want to day that to Kona-chan now! _"TWO!" _No choice. I have to say it!_

"Ayano, I love you!" Hiyori finally yelled.

"ONE-" In the blink of an eye, the fury of Minegishi was quelled by half. "What?" she asked, her voice lowered to regular volume. "What did you say?"

"… I-I love you," Hiyori repeated. _Please let this work._

For a moment in time, Ayano maintained a cocked arm, looking as if prepared to straight at any given moment… But slowly, the arm lowered, and the flames of anger were extinguished. Finally, the grip around Hiyori's neck was released and, once let go, Tamura gasped for breath.

"Listen," Minegishi said, "if you're screwing with me-"

"I-I'm not! I really do love you." _I know lying like this is probably digging myself into a deeper hole, but I just can't seem to stop._

Ayano, voicing a heavy sigh, squeezed the bridge of her nose. Her voice for the moment was no longer in the sweet tone it usually maintained. Rather, it was blunt and sounded rather irritated. "Listen, Hiyori, I don't want to sound ungrateful… but it's not going to work. I have a _boyfriend_, got it? And I don't feel like cheating on him any time soon, ok? Sorry."

"… No, it's ok," Hiyori said back as she stood up from the bench. "I guess I got carried away a bit there, I'll admit. _I'm_ the one that should be apologizing."

"… Listen, Hiyori, I don't want you to feel sad about me rejecting you, but-"

"No, don't worry about it," Tamura assured Minegishi. "Don't feel bad about it. I'll be fine." _Besides, I got what I came here for. I'll be good for a while_.

Finally, Ayano smiled. "Well, I'm glad to hear that… Hiyori?"

"Yes?"

"Do I _really _look good in this?" Minegishi asked.

Hiyori grinned. "Trust me, you'll have Ren _begging_."

-o0o-

As usual, our young artist, after her "successful" date, gained a stint of inspiration which she used to create more personal projects. However, this stint proved to be a _very_ troubling sign. Her first stint from Konata lasted a period of two weeks. Kagami endowed the artist with _another_ two weeks. Misao, however, provided a week-and-a-half of juice. Miyuki- Well, she attempted to break Hiyori of her habit, but that lasted only for one week's time.

Ayano gave only three _days_, bring Hiyori to the night of Friday. It seemed that the instant she lost her stimulation, the pain of her left arm came flooding back with just as much ferocity as it had given before.

The artist contemplated these thought on said Friday night. _This can't be good. This **is** **not** good. Every date I go on gives me inspiration, but the bouts I'm getting are shrinking more and more! There's only Patricia Martin left to go after, but after that… there's no one left… Well, there **is** Yutaka and Minami-_

_ No! No, no, NO! I can't let myself go down that path! I vowed not to ruin what relationship they have and I don't intend on doing that! Not now, not ever…_

_ But if this pain keeps up…_

Just then, Tamura's cellphone rang from within her left pant pocket. "Hello?" she answered after retrieving it.

"_Hey, Hiyorin. It's me._"

"Hey Kona-chan," she sighed back.

"_What's up? You sound a little down._"

"Nah, I'm fine… I'm down on my inspiration, so I'm going to ask Patricia out tomorr-"

"_Wait! That's why I called. I got someone **better!**_"

"Eh? Better? Who?"

"_Kuroi-sensei!_" Izumi declared.

"Kuroi-sensei? Your teacher? W-Why _her_?" Hiyori asked.

"_Trust me, you'll get a butt-load of inspiration from her. The Capturing God says that teachers don't produce enough of the 'frutis of your labor,' but **I** say differently. The Capturing God never met Kuroi-sensei._"

"… Capturing God?" Hiyori repeated. "Look, fine. I'll go after your teacher if you think it's best."

"_Aw thank you, Hiyorin! I love you!_"

"… I love you, too," Tamura whispered back, "… But Konata, what happens when I run out of people?"

There came a long, silent pause from the other end of the line. "… I guess we'll figure that out when it happens. Love you. Night!" Then she hung up.

Placing the phone back into her pocket, the artist sighed to herself "I need something to drink." So she left her room and, turning to her left, she saw Kazumi walking in the opposite direction down the hallway. Hiyori greeted her mother with a "Hey Mom" before passing her.

But she took no more than two steps past her before Kazumi spoke. "… Is there something you want to say to me, Hiyori?"

Tamura halted and turned around to give her mother back a confused "Eh?"

Kazumi turned around as well and put her hands to her hips. "Is there something you want to tell me... about Izumi-san?"

_Oh shit._ The artist gasped, accidentally revealing her knowing. "… Uh, well…" she began, "w-we're just friends, Mom. _Really_."

"… Ok, Hiyori, don't lie. Your father already told me the truth, so I _know_ you're lying."

"D-Dad? But how did he-?"

"He _heard_ you two… Said you two make a huge racket." _Oh Jesus, this is so embarrassing!_ "So, just fess up, please."

"… It's true," Hiyori finally admitted. "Koanta and I are… _together_." Hiyori looked into her mother's eyes for any sign of anger, upset, or worry. Instead, she was met with a rather deadpan look. "… Are you mad at me, Mom?"

Mrs. Tamura, giving the bridge of her nose a pinch, voiced a huge sigh. "Well," she replied, "I suppose it can't be helped. I guess if you really do like Izumi-san, _I_ can't stop you."

"… Thanks, Mom," Hiyori said with a smile. "You don't know how happy you just made me."

Kazumi smiled back.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Long chapter, I know, but a lot happened (switching in-between the Hiiragis and Hiyori.)

Ok, if you can figure out who Hiyori's father is _heavily_ based on, you'll win… my respect, I guess. Also, if you can figure out the Capturing God reference, you'll get respect as well.


	8. Nanako

Chapter 8

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Before I start, I'd like to point out something from the last chapter. Props to **OtakuGirl347 **for catching the reference with the name of Sōjirō's book. It was a Seitokai Yakuindomo reference (which, by the way, is an anime that, if you are not opposed to hearing every sex joke and innuendo ever made in history, I would _highly_ recommend watching.)

* * *

The next morning, Hiyori was beginning to regret the decision she made the previous night. _What was I thinking? I got to stop doing **everything** Kona-chan tells me!_ As she stood in the courtyard of Ryoo High, the artist was in search of her girlfriend. Then, spotting her sitting atop the bench she usually sat on, Hiyori rushed over to her.

Izumi lifted her eyes from her DS and greeted Tamura with a "Good morning, Hiyorin-"

"Kona-chan," she interrupted, "I don't know if I can do it!"

"Do what?" Izumi asked.

"Ask your teacher out! It's- It's just too hard!"

Turning her DS off, Konata stood up from the bench and walked over to Tamura. "Oh come on, Hiyorin, it's not _that_ bad."

"But it is! I've been asking out girls my own age- I'm actually getting good at that- but now I have to ask an _adult_ out! I- I don't know if I-"

Hiyori was cut short by Konata standing up onto her toes to peck her girlfriend on the lips. _I hope no one else saw that_. "You'll do fine," Izumi reassured. "Just do what you've always done."

The artist could not help but smile. "Thanks… When do you think I should try and ask?"

"Hmm… It'll have to be in-between classes, when you're both alone and there are less people to see you do it. I know how embarrassed you get," she said with a grin.

"Ok… Well, isn't about time _we _get to class?"

"Sure. Let's," Izumi said back with a nod.

-o0o-

"Ayano!" Kagami called out, who had finally been successful in finding her. It was an in-between between second and third period and, at that moment, the orange-haired girl was talking with Misao.

Hearing her name uttered, Ayano turned around and greeted Hiiragi with a friendly "Hello, Kagami."

"I need to ask you something," Kagami then quickly stated. "You and Hiyori hung out on Tuesday, right?"

Minegishi accidentally let slip a stifled gasp. "Y-Yeah," she tensely said back, "we did." Hiiragi spotted out of the corner of her eye Misao giving a slight fanged grin.

"What did you two do?" Kagami then asked.

"Well… I had a bit of shopping that day and Hiyori was nice enough to help out."

"Did anything _else_ happen?"

"W-What?" she gasped. "What do you mean?"

"Did she try anything _unusual_," Hiiragi interrogated. "Anything at all?" Kagami was met with tense silence. "She _did_, didn't she?" Misao got even more interested in the conversation.

"… Y-Yeah," Ayano finally admitted. "She, sort of… kissed me."

Misao gasped. "No way!" she exclaimed. "She kissed you too?- Oops."

Both the eyes of Kagami and Ayano quickly fell upon the fanged girl. "Y-You too, Misao?" Minegishi asked. "When did that-? Kagami? Where are you going?"

The twin-tailed girl had turned and began to walk, her mind now in a daze. "_What is going on?_" she began to wonder to herself. "_She kisses me… Tells me that she loves me… But then goes out with both Ayano **and **Misao? I… I **want** to be mad, but… I'm **not**…_

_ But just what **am** I feeling right now…?_

-o0o-

At around that same moment, the young artist was attempting to summon her courage. Beyond the sliding door before her was the class of Miss Nanako Kuroi, Konata's homeroom teacher. Hiyori, before now, was tipped off on a few things about Kuroi: she was just into gaming _as_ Izumi, she was single (which, at this point, didn't matter to Tamura one bit), and she often liked to go out and spend the nights drinking. Whether that last fact was actually going to play a role in their date was to be seen…

With nerve finally reached, Hiyori reached forward and slid the door open. Before her sat the teacher in question, sitting at her desk, her green eyes fixed upon her work. Hearing the door open, she lifted her gaze to Hiyori. "Yeah, can I help you?" she asked. Tamura opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Kuroi. "What a sec. You're not in any of my classes, are you?"

"N-No," Hiyori replied, "but I'm friends with Konata, who _is_."

"Izumi? No kidding. _Huh_, I didn't think Izumi had friends apart from the three she has lunch with everyday… What's your name?"

"Hiyori Tamura," she replied. "I'm a first year, alongside Koanta's cousin, Yutaka."

Nanako, just to check if Hiyori's story was correct, retrieved from her desk a few sheets of class listings and, after a moment of search, found that Tamura's statement was correct. "Ah, there you are: Hiyori Tamura, class 1-A." Slipping the forms back away, Kuroi then asked the artist "Ok, so what's up?"

_Forget what Kona-chan said, this **still** is a lot harder than asking a peer out._ _How does she expect me to this! How the hell do I ask a **teacher** out?... 'Just do what you've always done.' That's what Kona-chan said… Well, I got nothing else to lose._

"Kuroi-sensei," said Hiyori, "do you want to hang out sometime!"

After a long moment of dead silence, Nanako finally reacted to Tamura's proposition with both a raise of an eyebrow and a deadpanned "Eh?"

"… Do you want to hand out?" Hiyori repeated.

Slowly, Nanako pivoted herself in her chair until she was facing in the direction of the artist. "You _do_ know that I'm a _teacher_ and what you're asking is- what's the word I'm looking for- _wrong_?"

"Y-Yeah, well… Well Konata said that you went with her, her friends, and her cousin to the beach one time!"

"… Oh yeah, we _did_ do that, didn't we," the teacher said, admitting a shred of defeat. "Ok, _Tamura_, I'll play your little game. So what do you got planned?"

"Uh, I'm not trying to 'play' you, sensei. But honestly, I'm up for whatever _you_ want to do."

Kuroi's eyebrow shot up once again. "Whatever _I_ want to do?" she asked, taking a tone that bordered on provocative. "Well, no offence, Tamura, but I don't think you'd want to do what _I_ do for fun. Besides, I _know_ you're not old enough to go out drinking…

… That is, unless you _want_ to."

_Uhh…_ "Excuse me?" Hiyori asked.

Nanako rose from her seat and, walking past Hiyori and to the door, poked her head through, checking to see if any other teachers were near. Seeing that the coast was clear, she shut the door and turned back to Hiyori before whispering her next words. "Listen, I know I'd probably get myself into deep crap for doing this, but if you want, I know a couple of bars that will allow us _both_ in.

So, how about _that_, Tamura? Wanna go?"

_… For some reason, I'm not surprised she's doing this… Is that bad for me to think?_ "Uh, s-sure," Hiyori replied, "… but I've never drank before."

"Aw don't worry about that," Kuroi reassured the student, "I'll make sure they water down your drinks. Ok, so can you meet in the faculty parking lot tonight?"

"Sure."

"Excellent… But right now, _you_ got to get to your next class."

"Right," Tamura agreed as she made for the door. As she left, the teacher's parting words to the artist were "See ya later, babe."

_Babe?_

-o0o-

_How do I know when I've hit rock bottom?_ Hiyori asked herself as she waited in the faculty parking lot of Ryoo High. _I mean for crying out loud, I'm about to go **drinking** with a teacher! I told myself that I'd never go so low as to ask either Yutaka or Minami out, but **this** is nuts!_ Hiyori looked up from her feet to spot Nanako walking toward her, giving a wave of her right arm.

Instead of stopping, Kuroi walked right past the student as she said to her "Let's get going." _Guess she doesn't want to waste time_. As she followed Nanako to her car, she, at that moment, was being watched.

Kagami, who happened to be walking down a section of sidewalk that passed next to the faculty parking lot, saw Hiyori get into Kuroi-sensei's car and drive off with her. Once again, the strange feeling fell over Kagami's heart.

"_Now she's going out with **Kuroi-sensei?** I- I don't understand. Why is she going on all these dates with all these people? Why isn't she going out… With **me**…?_

Suddenly, it hit her, and in a flash epiphany, the strange feeling that had formed within Kagami became instantly clear.

"_I'm… **jealous**…_"

-o0o-

Once out of the parking lot, Nanako made a quick stop at her apartment to change out of her work clothing and into street clothing. Once done, Hiyori was driven into town (downtown to be exact) to a small dive by the name of (wouldn't you know it) "Dive."

The bar's interior was pretty much how Hiyori had mentally imagined it: dimly lit, the air choked with the smell of stale tobacco smoke, and questionable individuals inhabiting it. The second Tamura and Nanako walked through the front door, the artist instantly received looks from the other patrons (the fact that she was still dressed in her school uniform didn't help.) Ignoring those stares, Kuroi led the student across the room toward an empty booth near the back. As they passed the bar itself, the bartender (a heavyset man with a five-o'clock shadow) noticed the teacher and waved to her.

"Nanako!" he said in a baritone voice. "How's it hanging!... Who's the kid?"

Hiyori was surprised how Nanako acted when faced with that question. She took a glance at Tamura, then back at the bartender. "What kid?" she asked back casually. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, Takashi."

Takashi raised an eyebrow at the blonde… but grinned. "… You're right," he said. "Maybe I saw wrong. Ha, you know _me_. My eyes aren't what they use to be. Take a seat, you two."

The two finally took their seats. Once situated, Hiyori commented aloud "Wow, you weren't kidding. He really _doesn't _care that I'm underage."

"Nope, not one bit," Nanako said back. "I'm surprised this place hasn't been shut down (not that I want that to happen, you understand.) I see kids come here all the time (some younger than you.)"

"But how can he serve them, knowing that they're not old enough?" Hiyori then asked.

"I know Takashi pretty well, and my guess is that honestly he doesn't care about the law. As long as you got money, he'll serve you." _Yeah, this bar isn't going to last for much longer._ "Well, I'm gonna get something to drink. What do you want?"

_And you think **I** would know **anything** about drinks? I've never had alcohol before in my life! Hell, I don't even use Listerine because it burns too much. _"I don't know… something good?"

"Hmm… You'd probably want something fruity and sweet tasting. I'll be right back." Nanako left the booth and returned a minute later holding two drinks: in her left hand was a 24 oz. can of beer and in her right was a pinkish drink.

Placing the colorful drink in front of her, Hiyori looked at the glass and asked "What is it?"

"Shirley Temple Black," she replied before taking a swig of her beer. Cautiously, the artist picked up her drink and took a small sip through the straw. "… This is good," she complemented aloud. _Hell, it doesn't even burn that much_.

Twenty minutes later, much to the teacher's surprise, Hiyori asked her "Would it be ok if I had another?" Nanako looked at her glass to see that it was, indeed, empty.

"Damn," she said aloud. "You gotta pace yourself, kid. Otherwise you're gonna be screwed up."

-o0o-

_Oh Kuroi-sensei, what was that you said earlier about pacing yourself? Oh, why do I ask? Because I think **you** forgot._

Such was the artist's thoughts later that night when she looked upon the sight before her. In front of Hiyori sat one-and-a-half glasses of Shirley Temple Black (one glass was half full.) In front of _Nanako_, however, sat _four_ 24 oz. cans of beer and, by now, it's effects were written all over her face. Her now hooded and inebriated eyes stared vacantly at the table's surface, her head hung forward in a slouch.

H-Hey, Hiyori," Nanako slurred. "Am- Am I… Am I- D-do I look d-drunk?"

"… Smashed," Hiyori laughed back. "_Absolutely_ smashed."

"Hey! No I… Isn't!... Ok, I am. I'm not _quite_ myself."

"Sensei, you're _completely _out of it."

S-Shut up! No I'm… Yeah, I'm _fucked_ up." Then, lifting herself from her seat, she jingled her car keys from out of her back pant pocket and said "Ok, then let's head back."

_Oh hell no!_ Tamura jumped to her feet and quickly snatched the keys from Kuroi's hands. "No way in _hell_ you're driving, sensei," she told Nanako.

Too drunk to even get angry, Kuroi instead fell back into the booth seat. "Don't w-worry then… Guardian Angel Takashi will protect me," she then slurred before dropping her head to the table's surface and falling dead asleep. _God damn it! What the hell am I going to do now? Wait, what was that business about Takashi?_ Hiyori turned her attention to the bar and called out from across the room. "Hey, Takashi! We got a problem here."

Takashi removed himself from behind the bar and walked over to Hiyori. He took one look at Nanako and laughed. "Figures," he mused to himself. "Don't worry, kid. This isn't the first time she has drunk herself asleep."

"But how is she going to get home? I'm not old enough to drive."

"Don't worry, you won't have to." Takashi then retrieved his wallet, took out fifty-five hundred yen and, with no hesitation, placed the bills in Tamura's hands. "Uh… What's this for?" she asked him.

"Take a right out of the bar and there's a hotel three blocks away," he explained. "That amount there is enough for one night. Just get a room and drop her off there. She'll be fine and sobered up by the morning."

"… Sounds like you've done this before."

"You have _no idea_," he laughed. "Oh, and don't worry about paying me back, kid. I'll just grill her tomorrow morning when she comes back to her car. She'll pay then. Good luck to you," he left with as he returned to his post behind the bar.

Tamura pocketed the money and turned back to Nanako, where she attempted to wake her by poking her in her right shoulder. "Hey, sensei," she said into Kuroi's ear, "wake up. Wake up!" Her only response was a groan and more snoring. _Perfect. Just **perfect**. Looks like I have to drag this chick to the damn hotel… Why does this crap have to happen to me?_

The artist heaved an annoyed sigh before propping Nanako up by putting her limp left arm around her shoulder. With the teacher's full body weight on top of her, she made heavy footsteps out the door and down the sidewalk. Passersby looked on in confusion at the sight of a young girl carrying a passed-out adult. With each step forward, Nanako seemed to grow heavier. And to only make things worse, the ache of Hiyori left arm was beginning to act up at that moment, further aggravating the young artist.

Finally reaching the hotel, the automatic doors opened and Tamura continued inside, lugging the sensei atop her. The woman behind the lobby's counter gave the two a perplexed look as they approached. "Can we get a room?" the artist's voice strained from the weight atop her.

"Uh…" said the woman. "Is this woman your mother, little girl?"

"No, she's a sensei, and I don't have time for this!" she snapped back. "This woman is piss-ant drunk, weighs a _thousand_ pounds, and she needs a place for the night!"

The woman then examined the blonde's face closer. "Wait… is that Kuroi-san?"

"Y-Yeah," Hiyori replied. "You know her?"

"Do I _know_ her?" she echoed back rhetorically. "She's dragged in here nearly every third day of the week… Ok, the room is fifty-five hundred for one night. I assume Takashi gave you the correct amount?"

"… Wow, you weren't kidding." Tamura retrieved the amount from her pocket, gave it to the woman, and received the keycard to room 408 in return. Hiyori thanked the woman and carried Nanako to the elevator, taking it to the fourth floor. Once there she found the room and entered it.

Flipping on the light switch bathed the interior in light: a single, queen sized bed, television and entertainment system against the wall opposite the bed, lamp and nightstand, a bathroom to the immediate right of the door, and a small window that overlooked the street she just walked down.

Finally reaching the bed, Hiyori unslung Kuroi from her shoulder and plopped her body onto the mattress. _Thank GOD. I'm not sure how much longer I could continue to carry her… Ugh, she's still out cold…_ The artist watched as Nanako slept. _… You know what? I came this far, I dragged her ass around, and I'm **not** ending this night without what I was looking for!_

Tamura crept over to the edge of the bed and slowly bent herself over Nanako. Inch by inch, she then lowered herself down, bring her face slower to the other until she brought her lips to contact with Kuroi's. _How sad is this? Resorting to getting kisses from people who are passed out… Well, at least the pain stopped. Nanako should be good here for tonight._

Hiyori lifted her head and whispered to the blonde a final "Goodnight" before heading toward the door. But just as turned around, a voice sounded from behind her. "Where do _you_ think you're going, honey?" Nanako asked.

Tamura whipped herself around to see Kuroi, now seemingly wide awake, lying atop the bed in a provocative pose. "K-Kuroi-sensei!" she exclaimed. "You're awake!"

"Damn right," she said back playfully, giving a fanged grin that reminded the artist of Misao. "So what? You were just gonna leave and not follow up on your little plan?"

"…Eh?"

"Don't act dumb. I figured out what this whole little date was about. You want _this_," she said as she placed her right hand atop her waist and gave it a few light slaps. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Uh… K-Kuroi-sensei, you're still drunk. You should get some rest."

"Hey, I'm _not_ drunk. _You're_ drunk!"

"_I'm_ not drunk!"

"Well you're not exactly _sober_ now, are you? And as a _teacher_, it would be irresponsible for me to let you go out at night _alone_… So," she continued, as she drew circled in the bedspread in front of her, "why don't you just spend the night _here_ with _me_?"

_Oh man, she's dead serious about this. She wants me to get in bed with her and-... I-I've only done that kind of stuff with Kona-chan. If I do this with Kuroi-sensei, I'll be cheating on Kona-chan. **Would** it be cheating? After all, it **was** Kona-chan that suggested I ask out Nanako._

Seeing that Hiyori was hesitating, Nanako took that opportunity to reinforce her advance. "Need some more convincing, do ya?" she then asked Tamura. "Ok, how about _this_?"Sitting herself upright on the bed, Nanako, with not a shred of remorse, slipped her shirt off and over her head, followed shortly after by unhooking and removing her bra. With her naked chest now exposed for Hiyori to see, she asked the artist "How about _now_, babe?"

It could have been Hiyori's desire to gain inspiration so that she could create more projects. It could have been the fact that (since her relationship with Konata) she viewed woman in a completely different light. It could have been the alcohol that remained in her system. It _also_ could have been any combination of the previous three. But for whatever reason, that night, Hiyori obliged Nanako's offer.

-o0o-

Later that night, Hiyori send two text messages from her phone. The first was to her parents, saying that she was spending the night at Konata's house. The _second was_ to Konata and said this:

_Spending the night with Nanako. If parents call, tell them I'm at your house._

Konata grinned at reading the message. "_Go Hiyorin,_" she cheered internally.

-o0o-

Hiyori awoke the next morning with a slight headache. Voicing a slight groan, she sat up on the bed and, for a split second, began to panic when she found herself _not_ in her own room. But she quickly remembered that this was the hotel room. As her senses began to return to her, she realized that her entire body felt a tad weird. After a few second she realized what it was: she was feeling the unfamiliar touch of blankets against the naked skin of her body. Checking beneath the covers revealed that, indeed, she was dressed in her birthday suit.

She then heard a moan from her left. Tamura looked over to her left to see an equally naked Nanako, her back facing her, asleep in the bed. _Oh yeah. I stayed the night with **her**… Man, what a night that was. _The artist attempted to remember the events of the previous night. _Man, we did that… we did **that**… we even did **that!**_

_ But did we do **THAT?**_"

With worry flooding over her, Hiyori brought her right hand beneath her thighs and began to check herself, only to heave a sigh of relief a moment later. _Thank God. It's still there. I think._

The artist then quietly (as not to wake Nanako) removed herself from the bed and slipped back on her uniform from yesterday. As she did, she checked her cellphone for the time: 5:54. _Good, it's still early. Maybe I can sneak my way back home before anyone spots me here._

"Leaving so soon?"

Hiyori turned back to the bed to see Nanako awake and sitting upright atop the bed. She didn't even seem to notice (nor care) that her chest was still bare, uncovered, and open for all to see. "Why leave now?" she then asked with a fanged grin. "We could always have a round _two_."

"Uh… Well," Hiyori said back, "I think it would be best if I left now, seeing that it's still early… It would be bad if someone caught us in the same hotel room together."

"Hmm… Good point, Hiyori. I don't feel like losing my job _just_ yet… Alright, you little sex fiend, you can go. I'm sober enough to get myself home."

"Ok… Hey, Kuroi-san? Last night, did we… do it?"

The blonde chuckled back. "We did _something_, that's for sure."

"Y-Yeah, but did we _do **it**_?"

"… No, we didn't _do it_. You kept your cherry." _Thank God. _"I _tried_ to, though, who knows _how_ many times. But every time I tried, you'd make a big fuss about it. You'd kick and scream and yell 'No, don't! I'm saving it for someone else!' Heh, it was kind of cute seeing you squirm like that."

"I- I actually did that?" Tamura asked (there was still much of last night she couldn't remember.)

"Yep, you did… So, who _is_ that someone else?" Nanako then asked.

"… Must have been Konata I was talking about," the artist whispered back.

The teacher's eyes widened. "Izumi?... Huh, wasn't expecting _that_. Then again, I wasn't really expecting last night either… Well, you go on home now. Be safe… And Hiyori?"

"Yeah?"

"… It should go without saying that you don't speak a _word_ of this to _anyone_, not even Izumi. Got that?"

"Sure thing," Tamura agreed with a smile. "See you later, Nanako."

"See you on _Monday_," Kuroi added with a grin.


	9. The Return of a Broken Heart

Chapter 9

"Damn it," Izumi whispered at her DS as all her Pokémon fainted and her character respawned at the nearest Pokémon Center. "I almost had the guy too! If that last move was leer instead of hyper beam, I would have won. Well, gotta go back and do it again."

The school hours for that day (the Monday after Hiyori's outing with Nanako Kuroi) had ended and, as usual, Konata could be seen sitting atop the same bench, engrossed in a game on her DS. So engrossed, in fact, that she did not even notice the girl who stood before her until she finally spoke.

"Hey," she simply said, just to get Izumi's attention.

This finally caused Konata to lift her gaze off the screen. "Hey Hiyorin," she greeted. "You said you got something you wanted me to see?"

"Yep," Tamura replied as she sat down next to Konata, so close that their thighs touched. Hiyori brought her book bag to her lap and retrieved from it a single notebook, placing it on _Konata's_ lap. The blue-haired otaku took one look at the cover and nearly screamed in excitement.

"It's _red_!" she exclaimed in delight, quickly opening the notebook and thumbing through the pages. "You brought me a red cover notebook!"

"That's right," the artist said back as she smiled at her girlfriend's burst of excitement. "I've been filling up red notebooks ever since my date with Kuroi-san."

"Really! That's-… Hold on. Does that mean that you and Kuroi-sensei got into some 'red cover' action?"

Hiyori paused to turn her head away from Konata. "… Yes," she admitted in a heavy tone of defeat. "I'm really sorry, Kona-chan."

"Sorry?" Konata asked back. "Why are you apologizing?"

"W-Well, it's like I… _cheated_ on you, Kona-chan. I feel terrible just thinking about it."

The artist's heartfelt words were met with the touch of the otaku's soft head of hair resting atop her right shoulder. "Eh, I'm not mad about any of that," Konata stated casually. "Besides, I know you love me more."

_I love it when she says stuff like that_. Hiyori closed her eyes and met Izumi's resting of her head by resting _her_ head atop Izumi's. She could now smell the sweetness of Konata's shampoo. "Besides," Hiyori added as she lowered her voice to a whisper, "I made sure to keep my virginity for _you_, Kona-chan." Hiyori was met with silence. "Kona-chan?"

When Izumi spoke not a word, Tamura looked down to see Izumi's face… _Red_. As red as the cover of her notebooks. Not only that, but her brow showed visible beads of nervous sweat. "Kona-chan…" Tamura continued. "Did I just… _embarrass_ you?" Again, the otaku was without words. _Oh this is too good to be true!_ "I _did_, didn't I! Wow, I think this is the first time I've ever seen _you_ embarrassed!"

Konata began to shrink into her seat. "… Y-You really saved it… for _me_?" she asked Hiyori bashfully. _Wow, **she's** cute when she's embarrassed. I hope I can bring out this side of her more often_._ In fact, I got to see how embarrassed I can get her **now**_.

In a flash, the artist's mischievous side took hold. Hiyori lifted her head from Izumi's before lowering it to whisper into Konata's ear. "All for you," she teased, "and when you feel like it… it's yours for the taking."

Going beyond what was thought possible, Konata's face grew even _more_ red. In addition, a stifled gasp slipped from her lips. "…T-Thanks, Hiyorin," she forced herself to say. "That's… the best gift I've ever gotten… And it's not even Christmas yet." _Such a weird thing to say… but if she's good, she just **might** get it for Christmas._

"So, Kona-chan," Tamura continued, "you free to come over my house today?"

Izumi gasped and jumped from her seat (dropping the notebook to the ground), turning back around to Hiyori. "Wha- R-right _now?_ So soon! B-But you said 'when I feel like it.' I-I'm not ready yet!"

The otaku was met with a burst of laughter from Hiyori. "No no, I'm not talking about _that_. I was just talking about hanging out… and doing the _other_ stuff."

"… O-Oh… Y-yeah, sure… Sounds like fun."

Tamura sat up from the bench and after putting the red notebook back into the bag, walked with Konata as they began to head off in the direction of the artist's house. As they did, Izumi's gaze drifted to her left. "What the?" she mused aloud. "What is- Oh shit."

Hearing her girlfriend swear for perhaps the first time, Hiyori followed the direction of her friend's gaze. "What is it, Kona-chan? What did you-? Oh shit."

Even at the distance they were, the two could see the fury that was advancing toward them. The twin-tailed fury. As fast as she could walk without actually running, Kagami Hiiragi, with the fires of the underworld burning behind her cobalt eyes, made her direct approach toward Konata and Hiyori. Izumi, with quick thinking, began to approach Kagami with the hopes of stopping her before she reached Hiyori. "Kagami' what's u-" was all she could utter before the Hiiragi blew right past her and right toward the artist.

"K-Kagami, wait!" Hiyori said in an attempt to negotiate. "What are you-?"

SMACK!

With the full force of her left arm, Kagami stuck her palm of her hand against Hiyori's right cheek with enough force to send her glasses flying off her face. In complete stun, Tamura stood frozen in the position the slap put her in: her struck cheek toward Kagami. She only turned to look Kagami in the eye after Konata picked the glasses from off the ground and gave them back to Hiyori.

"K-Kagam-"

"Shut up!" Kagami exploded before entering into her tirade. "Who the _hell_ do you think you are, Hiyori, doing what you do! Is there even a _soul_ in that body of yours? A sense of right and wrong? WELL!" Already she was attracting attention: everyone within hearing distance of Kagami (which is, to say, everyone within the entire courtyard) now had their eyes turned to the group of three. "Is this some sort of sick game you're playing? Using my sister to get some sick fucking thrills? D-Do you get joy from twisting people's hearts like this?"

Kagami paused to catch her breath, taking deep, shaky heaves of her chest and shoulders. Suddenly, there came from the corners of her sharp eyes… _tears_, tears that slowly began to roll down her cheeks.

"S-so what, kissing me wasn't good enough for you? Was that it?" _Holy-_ "I wasn't good enough, so you went after Misao and Ayano… a-and _Konata_?" Izumi quickly positioned herself behind Hiyori, putting a barrier between her and Kagami. "Answer me, Hiyori! Was I not _good_ enough? D-Did I do something _wrong_?" Her yells of fury slowly turned to sobs of anguish and despair. Kagami lowered her head, her tears now falling directly from her eyes and onto the ground at her feet. "T-Tell me, Hiyori, where did I fail you. I want to know!"

Hiyori was simply too stunned to speak, her mind turned upside-down by this turn of events. She truly wasn't sure what to make of this display from Kagami. Tamura chose to remain silent. Met with said silence, Kagami lifted her head back to the bespectacled girl. There no longer burned fires in her eyes. In place were pools of distress and sorrow.

"… I-I want to know… because…

Because I love you, Hiyori!"

_Oh. My. God. _There it was, out in the open, an admission that shook the artist to her very core. Now the tables had been turned. Hiyori was now _receiving _the admission of love… and she knew not how to react. She _herself_ would usually be saying this, but it was now _her_ turn to be the admittee.

"…K-Kagami," the artist finally managed to stifle from past her lips. Unfortunately, that was _all_ she could currently utter.

Met once more with Hiyori's silence and her shocked and flabbergasted look, Kagami fell back once more into rage. "That's it?" she spat. "That's all I get? I spill my guts out and that's all you have to say?..." The tears returned once again. "Well _fine_! If that's the way it going to be then _fine_… Have fun with your _girlfriends_." The twin-tailed girl then spun around and began to walk off in the opposite direction, making toward the sidewalk and toward the station.

It took Hiyori a full twenty seconds before she could move _or_ speak. When she finally could, she turned herself around to face Konata. "Oh no," she said to Izumi. "This is terrible. I've caused Kagami so much pain. And _now_ she admits that she loves me! W-What should I do, Kona-chan!"

Konata gave back to Hiyori a look that took the artist _completely_ off-guard: serious. When Hiyori looked at Konata, she was usually always smiling (putting on her visage her all-too-familiar cat-like grin.) But today, Izumi's face showed no such grin. It was as solemn as a monk.

What she asked next was just as shocking to Hiyori. "Do you love her?" Konata asked.

"W-what? H-How can you ask such a thing?" Tamura asked back.

"It's a simple question: Do you love her?"

"B-But I love _you_, Kona-chan!" the artist defended.

"It doesn't matter if you love _me_. Do _you_ love _Kagami_?"

"I-I don't understa-"

"Did you _tell_ her that you loved her, Hiyorin?" Izumi then asked.

"W-Well… Y-yeah, I _did_, but I used as an excuse to get inspiration from Kagami. I kind of just _said_ it-"

"Hiyorin," Konata interrupted. "No one ever 'just says' that they love someone. When you tell someone that you love them, even if, at the time, it was as a joke, a part of you really _meant _it."

_… Wow. I've never heard Konata talk like that before. And what she said… It was so profound!_ "So what you're saying is," Hiyori said back, "is that because I told Kagami that I loved her (even though I _thought_ I didn't mean it)… I really _did_ mean it?"

Konata nodded her head once. "Right," she said. "And right now, she's hurt… Go to her, Hiyorin. Set things right."

"… You're right," Tamura concluded. "Thanks, Kona-chan. I'll be back."

Hiyori gave her girlfriend one last grateful smile before turning about and running off in the direction Kagami went. Stepping onto the sidewalk, Tamura looked to her left, in the direction where Kagami ran off, and saw her head of lavender hair a distance away. The artist set off as fast as her legs could send her. She was nearly out of breath by the time she got within Kagami's hearing distance, but once she did, Hiyori belted out her name. "Kagami! Wait!"

She stopped. She turned around to face Hiyori, revealing her swollen red eyes. "What do _you_ want?" she snapped.

Tamura took a moment to catch her breath before she finally spoke. "Kagami… Why did say that to me? Why were you so willing to admit something like that in front of so many people?"

The Hiiragi raised an eyebrow. "W-What? Why would you ask something like that? It's because what I said was true! I _love_ you."

"But _why_? _Why_ do you love me?"

Kagami paused. "… Why?" she echoed. "Well… B-because you kissed me!... T-Then I saw you with Ayano and… And Misao, a-and Konata… And you _said_ 'I love you'…" Her words were sounding less and less organized. It was clear that she had no true answer and that she was formulating her response on the spot. Before Kagami could ramble any further, the artist spoke.

"No, Kagami, you _don't _love me." she stated.

The Hiiragi took a step backwards. "W-Wha? H-How can you say that! I just _told_ you that I love you, Hiyori-"

"But you _don't_… You're using love as an excuse, to explain how you're feeling. You don't _really_ love me. You're just convincing yourself that you do… You're confused, Kagami."

"Wha- B-But _you_ said-"

"_That_ was a mistake. I never meant to say that to you… I'm sorry, Kagami." It was now the Hiiragi's turn to be at a loss for words. The shear desperation and hopelessness showed as clear as day upon the girl's face. "… Kagami," Hiyori whispered in continuance, "why _else_ did you say that you loved me?"

The artist was suddenly met with Kagami lunging forward and burying her head into her right shoulder. Her muffled words came after. "Because I _wanted_ it to be true!" she admitted. "I… I _wanted_ to be in love. I wanted someone to be in love _with me_. I don't know why, but I've always felt so… _lonely!_ I feel like an idiot telling you this."

In a show of comfort, Hiyori slowly brought her arms around Kagami's shoulders until she had her in full embrace. "It's ok," she assured the twin-tailed Hiiragi. "Let it all out."

"… For as long as I can remember," Kagami continued, "I've always felt lonely inside. It took me until the end of sophomore to finally figure out what it was. It wasn't because I didn't have enough friends. It wasn't because of my family. It was because… I needed someone to _love_. Someone to hold me whenever I was feeling down. Someone to tell me I was beautiful, even when I didn't feel like I was… Listen to me, I sound so pathetic-"

"Kagami," Hiyori said, "I _do_ know someone that loves you."

Kagami lifted her hopeful eyes to Hiyori. "Y-You do?" she asked.

"Yes, and she's closer to you than you think."

"… _She_?"

Tamura smiled. "It's your sister: Tsukasa."

Hiyori's hug of Kagami broke as she reeled back from stun. "Tsu-Tsukasa?" Kagami repeated aloud. "No. No, no, you wrong! T-That can't be!"

"It's true," Hiyori stressed. "She told me herself. That's what we were doing when we met at that café. She was asking me advice on how to admit her feelings to you."

"Admit her fee- Y-Yeah! She _did_ tell me that she loved me once. B-But then I-" Kagami lifted up her arm and gazed at her left hand, the very hand with which she used to strike her sister. A moment later Kagami fell to her knees and she began to weep once again. "Oh God, what have I done!" she sobbed to herself.

Tamura quickly crouched down and helped Kagami back to her feet. "What's wrong?" she asked her.

"… I hit her," Kagami told the artist with her eyes still fixated upon her left hand. "After Tsukasa told me that she loved me… I _hit_ her…" Her eyes then returned to Hiyori. "What the hell kind of a person am I? My own _sister_ tells me she loves me and I _hit her!_... We haven't even talked to each other since that day.

W-What should I do, Hiyori?"

The artist reached forward and placed both hands on the Hiiragi's shoulders. "Go to her," Hiyori told her. "It's never too late to make up for what you've done."

The Hiiragi sister's eyes, at great length, morphed from despair to gleaming hope. Suddenly, Kagami leaned herself forward and, before Hiyori had time to react, the two's lips were coupled. Lifting but a second later, Kagami smiled and said to Tamura "Thanks… for _everything_," before turning back around and heading toward the station."

The artist stood frozen for a brief moment until, finally, a smile graced her visage. She then turned back and returned to the courtyard of Ryoo High, where Konata awaited her return. "What happened?" Izumi asked as she ran over to her girlfriend. "What was that all about, Hiyorin?"

Hiyori smiled again. "I think Kagami is going to be alright," she said. "… And Kona-chan? I think I'm done."

"Done?" Izumi echoed.

"I'm done going on all these dates. After seeing what I did to Kagami, I see that it's not worth it anymore. While I might get material for a few weeks, it may come at the risk of hurting others."

"… I see," Konata agreed at length. "But what about the addiction…? Miyuki told me about the conversation you had." _Figures. A good girl like her couldn't keep a secret like that forever. _"She said that you were in a wreck. What's going to happen when you feel like falling back into the habit?"

"Kona-chan, I don't want to rely on other people's emotions anymore. I just want to be with _one_ person… _you_. If I feel like I'm falling back, you'll help me out, right?" Tamura asked with a grin.

Izumi smiled back. "Anything for my Hentai Hiyorin."

_Damn it, not that again…_

-o0o-

Kagami had no other goal than to head home. Nothing else matter to her. She barged her way through the front door of her home and, after kicking off her shoes, walked right past her now puzzled parents up the stairs to the second floor and to the door of Tsukasa's room.

"Tsukasa!" she exclaimed as she threw the door open. The sister in question was sitting atop her bed, her eyes fixed upon the pages of a light novel. "I need to talk with you," she continued as she shut the door behind her.

Tsukasa's eyes remained unmoved. They did not lift from the pages. In fact, she didn't even seem to acknowledge that her sister had even entered the room. It was as if Kagami wasn't even there.

"P-Please, Tsukasa, look at me. I _really_ need to talk to you!" Tsukasa turned a page and kept on reading, choosing to ignore Kagami further. Met with her silence, Kagami took slow steps forward. Tears were once more on Kagami's horizon. "Tsukasa, _please_, stop ignoring me-"

"Go away," Tsukasa whispered.

"… W-What?"

"I said 'Go away'… I don't want to talk to you… Please, just leave." Keeping her own tears back, Tsukasa kept her eyes fixed on the words of the book. Suddenly, she felt the bed shake and the book was abruptly torn from her hands. Now she was _forced_ to look up. Kagami sat in front of her. "Onee-chan, I said to go awa- *Gasp*" The short-haired girl was met with the warm touch of her sister's arms wrapped around her and Kagami's head buried into her right shoulder.

"O-Onee-chan?" she stuttered from surprise.

"… I'm sorry," Kagami said, her sobbing words muffled. "I'm so, _so_ sorry. I've been such a horrible person to you! I-I should have listened to you. I should have heard your cries for help! I-I had no idea you were suffering!

I… I had no idea you felt this way about me, Tsukasa; that you _loved_ me." Tsukasa let slip another soft gasp. "I'm such an idiot for not realizing this earlier. You were desperately trying to tell me that you loved me. And I… I was desperately trying to _be_ in love, to find someone that loved _me_."

"… Onee-chan?... You _wanted_ to fall in love?"

Kagami tightened her embrace of her sister. "And little did I know… That that person lived under the same roof as me… That she would be my own sister."

Tsukasa brought _her_ arms around her sister and rested her head atop Kagami's right shoulder. "Onee-chan," she whispered into Kagami's ear. "… I love you."

"… I love you, too," Kagami said back. Atop Tsukasa's bed, the two held each other in a loving embrace, both them wishing that it would last forever. Suddenly, Kagami felt a strange new sensation: the touch of her sister's lips pecking at her neck. "Tsukasa," Kagami said. "If you want to kiss me, you can just ask."

Tsukasa lifted her head from her sister's shoulder and brought it in front of Kagami's, the tips of their noses a mere inch apart. Both sets of eyes gazed longingly into each other and, bit by bit, they brought their faces closer and closer together. Finally, their lips touched, and ecstasy overtook the both of them. Their embraces grew tighter and their hands began to glide up and down the lengths of their backs. Soon, the two fell over onto the bed's surface, the bond of their lips not breaking once.

"_… I like this,_" Kagami said to herself as she continued to make out with her sister, "_this feeling I have right now. Is this how it feels to be in love?... Because it feels so **right**. I don't care if it's with my sister… This is what I've been looking for all this time._

_ Love._

_ Please, let it never end…_"


	10. Epilogue

Epilogue

**_One Month Later…_**

Stepping off the morning commuter rail, Konata, Miyuki, and the two Hiiragi sisters walked off the stairwell and continued down the sidewalk toward the high school. Ever since the admission of their love, the sisters had developed a habit of holding hands whenever they walked to and from school. They sometimes received stares from the other students or passersby, but they paid no attention to them.

Once entering the courtyard, Konata did as she had been doing for the past month or so: breaking off from the group of four to meet with _her _girlfriend: Hiyori. The artist sat atop the same wooden bench, "their" wooden bench, awaiting Izumi's arrival. Konata plopped down next to the artist and, before she could even greet the otaku with a "Hi," sat herself up straight to peck Tamura on the left cheek.

"Good morning to _you_," Hiyori joked, all the while smiling. "So, how have Kagami and Tsukasa been doing?"

"Oh fine, just fine," Konata replied. "They've been all 'lovey-dovey', like always. I can't tell if they've done the dirty yet, but I-"

"Kona-chan," Hiyori interrupted, "I just asked if they were doing ok, not if they were doing _it_."

"Yeah, but it's still valuable information to know…" Konata didn't bother to ask how _Hiyori_ was doing because she already knew all too well that she was doing fine. Since her declaration to give up the "dating for inspiration," the young artist made great strides in breaking the habit. Whenever the pain of her left arm began to act up, she could always count on Konata for her _support_. After two weeks, the pains went away completely, and a few days later, she was back to her normal self. Creating projects once again became easy.

"Hey, classes are starting soon. Let's head inside," said Konata.

Nodding in agreement, Hiyori got up and headed toward the door with Izumi. As they did, the artist heard a voice from behind her call out her name. "Tamura-san!"

Both she and Konata turned around and were met with the sight of Minami Iwasaki and Yutaka Kobayakawa walking over to her, the latter waving her little arm. While Hiyori stopped to talk with them, Izumi continued inside. "Hey guys," Hiyori said to the two, "how it's going?"

Yutaka went strangely silent, so in place of her, Minami spoke. "Yutaka wants to ask you something," she said to Tamura in her usual soft voice. When Yutaka remained silent, her eyes now aimed at her feet, Minami gave her a light tap of her hand against her left arm. "Go ahead, Yutaka."

"B-But Minami-chan, I'm nervous," she said with a blush. _What the heck is going on here?_

"It's ok, Yutaka. Just do it like we practiced."

"Uh… What's going on here?" Hiyori asked.

Kobayakawa lifted her nervous eyes back to Hiyori. "W-Well," she began, "Minami and I were wondering… if you wanted to hang out sometime?"

"Hang out? Sure, why not?" _After all, we **are** in the same class, and we **are** friends, so why not?_ "So, what did you want to do? Go shopping or something?"

"Umm… Well, actually, Konata told about how you… went on all those dates…" _… She **what?**_ Hiyori noticed that _Minami_ was starting to blush. "So," Yutaka continued, "Minami and I were wondering if, maybe, you wanted to… go on a date? With the both of us?"

_Oh shit…_

_**The End

* * *

**_

**Author's Notes: **Well, this was indeed a fun ride. I enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it more. Now to go onto my next project.

Good day to you all and Happy Reading!


	11. Christmas Bonus Chapter

**Christmas Bonus Chapter**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **This chapter will act as both a bonus for all those who favorited or subscribed to the story and an entry to Fan Fiction Challenge #6 (see the Mostly Lucky Star Forum for more details.) As a bonus chapter, this can be counted as part of _or _separate from the rest of the story. It's up to you to make that choice. Personally, I'd count it. XD

* * *

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They would be two days that Hiyori Tamura would not soon forget. If for good or bad reason, you ask? Well, that depends on who's telling the story…

-o0o-

_What the hell is wrong with me? I was **finally** over doing this: going on dates with others. I told Kona-chan that I wanted to be with her and **only** her… But then I agree to **this! **Well, it's not like Kona-chan backed me up or anything. I should have know she'd do something like this, even though we're a couple._

At that moment, Hiyori spotted her pair of companions, her company for the rest of the night, approaching from through the front entrance of the school. _How did this happen again? Let me think…_

-o0o-

"You want to _what_?" Hiyori shot back at nearly full volume.

Before Tamura stood Yutaka Kobayakawa and Minami Iwasaki, two fellow peers and friends in Ryoo High and. The reason for her outburst was simple: she was just asked out on a date. By both of them.

For the _same _date.

With Minami at her side, Yutaka stood her ground before Hiyori. But even still, she was quite nervous (as her voice clearly showed.) "Y-Yes," she said. "M-Minami and I were wondering if y-you wanted to go on… a date. With the both of us."

Hiyori whipped herself around to see how Konata was reacting to this, but she was long gone by then. _Where the hell did she go? Just when I need her the most, she up and vanishes! Thanks **a lot**, Kona-chan! _She turned back to the two. "W-_Why_ do you want to… _date_?" she asked the both of them.

"W-Well," replied Yutaka, "like I said, Konata told me what you told her, about all those dates you-"

"Wait, let me stop you right there, Yutaka… Exactly _what_ did your cousin say to you about what I did?"

Her blush intensified slightly. "W-Well… C-Can we meet after school today?" she then asked.

Iwasaki picked up from there. "The café a few blocks from here," she stated. "You know which one I mean?"

"Yeah," Tamura instantly replied. "That I _do_ know." _After all, a lot of things occurred there…_

"Can you meet us here, in the courtyard after the final bell? We'll go there after."

"… Sure," the artist slowly replied. "I can do that."

After a nod, Manami turned to Yutaka. "I think the bell is going to ring soon. We should get inside." The pink-haired girl concurred with a nod of her own and the two entered through the front entrance of the building. Hiyori, however, seemed too stunned to move from her spot.

_… Is this even going to be worth it? If I fall back into that habit, if the pain returns… No, it won't. I have Kona-chan to help me with that. She helped me so much these past months, I wish I could repay her somehow-_

_ "… but if she's good, she just **might** get it for Christmas."_

_ … Maybe there **is** a way…_

-o0o-

The three sat in silence. In one corner of the café (the same one the artist had visited before on many occasions), she sat across from her green and pink-haired peers. On the surface on the table, there sat before Hiyori her usual caramel macchiato (but being Christmas Eve, the store gave it a festive touch, topping it off with a pinch or two of red and green sugar sprinkles.) Before Minami sat a regular medium coffee (black) and in front of Yutaka sat nothing.

For the past few _minutes_, in fact, the three had not spoken a word. Hiyori was waiting for one of the others to begin (for it was their intent on coming here so that they could tell her something.) But so far, Yutaka seemed more content with looking down at her shoes. Finally, after what felt an eternity, Minami gave her another nudge with her elbow.

"Aren't you going to tell her?" she asked Kobayakawa.

Yutaka finally lift her eyes and turned them to Hiyori. "I-I… I can't!" she nearly wept. "I'm just too nervous. _You_ have to say it for me, Minami-chan."

"But what about all the practice we did? Was it all for nothing?" _She keeps mentioning that they "practiced" for something, but I have no idea what they're talking about!_

"I'm sorry, but I just can't say it."

Iwasaki voiced a sigh of relent. "Fine. I guess _I'll_ tell her then." She turned her gaze to Hiyori. "You see, Tamura-san, we wanted to ask you something. After what Izumi-san told us-"

"Yeah, _about_ that," Hiyori interjected. "Mind telling what _exactly_ she told you two?"

"… Well, she actually told Yu-chan first, then _she _told _me_."

"She told you about all the dates I've been on, right?"

"Yes, but she said that you've given that up. But… She also told Yu-chan about… what _you_ and Izumi-san do."

_Oh God no. Knowing Kona-chan, she probably told them that we've basically had sex. Though we never had **sex** sex, I bet Kona-chan exaggerated her stories and told Yutaka that- JESUS, why the hell can't she learn to keep her mouth shut!_

"S-So," Hiyori continued, "she told you, Yutaka, about the… _intimate_ things we did?" The blush she received back from both girls answered that question for her without words. "… So what did you want to tell me?" she then asked.

"Well, after Izumi-san telling us this, we were wondering if… perhaps… you wanted to… do that kind of stuff… with _us_?"

Hiyori had never hyperventilated before in her life, but on that day, at that exact moment, she did just that. With her left hand clutching her chest, she began to take rapid and anxiety-latent breaths. "T-Tamura-san, are you ok?" Yutaka quickly asked to which she received no verbal reply (apart from more breathing.) Minami then began to get up from her chair in an attempt to help the artist, but she quickly shot her other hand up to her, telling her wordlessly that she was fine.

She eventually stopped hyperventilating after a few long minutes. By then, she and the other two were receiving looks from the café's other patrons. Finally, Tamura was able to speak. "Y-You want to do… _that_?" she was able to muster.

Surprisingly, after being so quite, Yutaka replied. "Y-Yeah," she said. "Minami-chan and I discussed and we agreed that it was something we both wanted to try."

"… _A threesome?_" Hiyori whispered.

"Yes… I guess you could call it that."

Tamura looked back and forth between the two to see their facial expressions. Minami seemed rather deadpan, meaning she was dead serious as to what she was asking. Yutaka, in contrast, continued to look fidgety and nervous.

"L-Look, Minami? Yutaka? I'm not sure you know what exactly you're asking-"

"No," Kobayakawa suddenly interrupted, "we _do_ know what we're asking. And we want to do it with _you_."

_T-This is… insane! How can these two ask something like this and be so calm about it! And furthermore, they both sound like they really **do** know what they're asking for. But that can't be! Unless…_

"Um," Hiyori continued, "_you two_, perhaps, haven't already done _that_ kind of stuff _together_ already?"

Yutaka paused before she answered. "Yes, we have."

The artist suddenly saw the two in a new light. Many times before, in the secret depths of her mind, Hiyori had imagined the two in such loving scenarios. But now, her imaginings had just been proven true. They _were_ as close as she had imagined, perhaps as close as she and _Konata_ were.

"So," Minami then said. "Have you made your decision?"

_I'd be lying to myself if I said that I didn't want to do this, because I really, **really** want to. If they had asked me a few months ago (of course I would have been nervous at first) but I would have gladly accepted. But now, things are different. I'm with Kona-chan! And the last thing I want to do is cheat on her! Oh what to do? What to do!_

_ … I'm going to hate myself for doing this…_

"… Ok," Hiyori finally replied. "I'll do it."

The two peer's eyes lit up for a split second. "R-Really?" Yutaka asked, to which her reply was a nod. "Thank you, Tamura-san. You're really kind to do this."

_Yeah, kind…_ "S-So, when do we-?"

"I thought," answered Minami, "we could go my house today. We originally thought of going over Yu-chan's, but we then remembered that Konata would be there, so that would have been awkward for you, Tamura-san."

"Right… Um, you can call me _Hiyori_ if you want to."

"… Ok, Hiyori… Well, are we both ready to leave?" Both Yutaka and Hiyori nodded. Minami waved their waitress for the check and, as she walked off to collect it, she spotted in the opposite corner of the room a rather _interesting_ sight. "Yutaka," she then whispered to her, "look over there."

Both she and the artist looked to the direction Minami was referencing. There at another corner, sat Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi. Both had steaming drinks before them and, currently, they looked to be in the midst of conversation. As they talked, Hiyori noticed something _else_. From the distance she sat from the other table, she could see beneath it.

Kagami's right hand and Tsukasa's left hand were held together, their fingers interlocked tightly in a seemingly unbreakable bond.

"When do you think _this_ happened," Yutaka asked the taller girl. She then turned to Hiyori. "Do _you_ know, Tam- I mean Hiyori?"

_You could say that…_

-o0o-

After the trio left the café, they made for Minami's house. As they turned one street corner, putting her house into view, Hiyori instantly remembered who lived _across_ from Minami: Miyuki Takara. _Crap! I can't let her see me here. Not after how I promised her that I would try and quit the habit._ The artist positioned herself close behind Minami, using her tall figure as a device with which to block herself from sight.

"Hiyori?" Iwasaki said. "What are you doing?"

"I can't let Miyuki see me here. It's a long story, but trust me, it won't be pretty."

"Ok…" she said back slowly, choosing to say no more. Tamura hid behind the two until finally they entered through the front gate. The second the gate closed, Hiyori removed herself from behind her cover.

Once inside, the three removed their shoes in the foyer and, without speaking a word, they headed upstairs, toward Minami's room. Her room was, in some ways, like Hiyori's room. There was a large bed against the wall opposite the door, a desk where various school supplies were neatly organized, and a large bookshelf to the left of the door, holding a many number of leather-bound books.

Minami and Yutaka put their schoolbags next to the desk and, after a brief pause, they climbed atop the bed, then waiting for Hiyori to do the same. It took her a few tense moments before she could do so. She took a spot at the foot of the bed, opposite of the other two, who sat near the head.

"… So," the artist said with a deep sigh. "How should we… start?"

Minami looked to the pink-haired girl. "Do you want to start?" she asked her.

Naturally, she shifted uncomfortable in her spot. "I-I… Well, I'm just so use to doing these kind of things with _you_, Minami-chan, so to do it with Hiyori with you watching…"

"Well, what if we kissed first? Would that help?" Slowly, Yutaka nodded. "Sorry, Hiyori-"

"No, no, that's ok," she quickly defended. "Do whatever you need to."

The artist looked on as the next event unfolded before her. The two pivoted themselves toward each other. They then scooted forward. Tamura was instantly reminded of the times when she and Konata would kiss: Yutaka sat herself atop Minami's right thigh and she lifted herself up on her legs (while Minami bent down slightly) until their lips connected.

Their kiss turned deep in an instant, an unbridled show of the affection they shared. Between them, they voiced soft moans. Minami brought her hands around Yutaka's tiny waist and Yutaka brought her arms around Minami's body (as much as she could.)

Hiyori was left stunned, paralyzed by the display._ I think I just died. I died, and this is some sort of heaven. I always imagined these kinds of things, but now it's actually **happening**, right **in front** of me!_

Their kiss lasted for a full four minutes, the bond of their lips not breaking once. When it finally did, their faces slowly pulled apart and their love-struck eyes gazed deeply into each other's.

"You go first, Minami-chan," Yutaka whispered.

"B-But Yu-chan-"

"It's ok. Seeing you go first might help me more."

After another pause, Minami nodded in confirmation. Their arms broke their embrace and after Yutaka removed herself from atop Minami, the mint-green haired girl turned to the bespectacled one. Hiyori slowly approached and brought herself close to Minami, wedging her right knee in-between her legs.

"Ready?" Iwasaki asked.

"Yes," Tamura replied, and the two leaned forward and caressed lips. For Hiyori, it was different from her other experiences with kissing: with no offense to her, her kisses seemed less "soft" than the others. Nevertheless, their oral embrace deepened and, unintentionally, Hiyori's hand migrated to the warmth of the skin of Minami's thighs.

Soon after, their contact broke and Hiyori removed herself from betwixt Minami's legs. Before she could say anything, she noticed Yutaka out of the right of her eye. The blush on her face she had held had intensified to a new height since she and Minami kissed. Not only that, but her breathing had become _rather_ _excitable_.

Minami noticed this as well. "Yu-chan? Are you ok?" she asked.

Yutaka didn't even seem to notice that Minami had spoken. Her eyes were too fixated upon the artist. Without speaking a word _just_ yet, she shuffled herself forward and plopped herself (much like she did with Minami) atop one of Hiyori's thigh and wrapped her tiny arms around her waist.

"Y-Yutaka?" Hiyori said, completely taken back by this display.

"T-That was… _amazing_," she whispered back. "I- I had no idea that would be so… _enticing_. I-I need to try!" And before Hiyori could react, Yutaka had already lifted herself up and pressed her mouth against the artist's.

The emotions that ran through the artist's veins were both too numerous and intense to describe. _Holy… My God… T-This is **really** happening, isn't it? Little Yutaka. Sweet, cute, innocent Yutaka. And I'm actually kissing her! T-This is so…_

Hiyori suddenly found herself out of the control of her own body. Her left arms suddenly shot around the back of Yutaka's head and it pulled it in closer to hers, further deepening the kiss. The pink-haired girl gave a single muffled yelp of protest, but it was quickly replaced with more pleasured moans. After another minute or so, Hiyori seemed to gain control of her actions and she released her grip of Kobayakawa's head and separated the contact of their lips.

"S-Sorry," Hiyori quickly apologized. "I didn't mean to do that. It just happened-"

"It's ok, Hiyori," Yutaka said back. "That was unexpected, coming from _you_, Hiyori." This cause the artist to blush further. Just then, Minami softly cleared her throat to get the others' attention.

She slowly reached her hands toward the bow of her uniform and began to cautiously undo it. "Hiyori?" she said. "Um, you think you're up for… taking it further?"

I think we all know what her answer was…

-o0o-

Later that same night, at around 21:00, Konata Izumi received a call on her cellphone. She quickly paused the game she was playing on her computer and read the display before answering. "Hey Hiyorin. How's it goin'?"

Instead of a standard "Fine" or an "Ok," Konata was met with this. "_I just had my first threesome_."

… Izumi was truly left speechless. She was so taken back by Hiyori's choice of words that she had none to respond with.

"_Kona-chan?_" Hiyori then said.

"… With _who_?" Konata finally asked.

"_… Minami and… Yutaka._"Once more, silence. "_Kona-chan?_"

"… REALLY!" she then suddenly screamed with joy, effectively making Hiyori's left ear deaf. "What the-? So _that's_ why you weren't at the bench after school today! Hiyorin, you _have_ to tell me the details! Tell me!"

"_…_ _Hey, Kona-chan. Would it be ok if I came over tomorrow?"_

"On Christmas? I wouldn't have it any other way! _Sure _you can come over. Did you get me a gift, Hiyorin?"

_… but if she's good, she just **might** get it for Christmas._

"_… Actually, yeah, I did…_"

-o0o-

Hiyori arrived at the Izumi residence at around 15:00 the next day: Christmas Day. She paused to gain her composure before she rang the doorbell. She heard Konata's bounding footfalls approach the door not a second or two later.

"Hiyorin!" she greeted the artist. "Merry X-Mas!"

Tamura grinned back. "Merry Christmas to you," she said back. "… Is your Dad home, Kona-chan?"

"Dad? No, he'll be out for the rest of today." _Perfect._ "He got a call this morning about a manuscript he sent in. He got really excited, saying that the publishing company might consider putting it into circulation. It sucks that he's not here, but I'm happy that he might get something published." Izumi then looked at Hiyori's hands to see that she wasn't holding anything: not a bag nor wrapped box. "So, where's my present?" she then asked.

Hiyori's smiled turned mischievous. _Time to embarrass Kona-chan. _Tamura lunged her left arm forward, grabbed Konata's right arm, and pressed her hand against the area _right in-between _her legs. "Your gift is right _here_," she said.

Konata gasped, both at the artist's sudden ambiguity and the realization of what she meant. "_Holy shit_," she whispered. "D-Do you mean-?"

"That's right," she answered. "If you're up to it-"

"Follow me!" Konata exclaimed. She grabbed Hiyori by the arm that clutched hers and dragged her lover into the house, up the stairs, and to her room. Their excitement was so great, they didn't even bother to take off their shoes.

-o0o-

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

Hiyori screamed perhaps a _bit_ louder than she wanted to, but in that moment, she couldn't have cared less. She experienced a feeling she would have never thought possible: a pain that was offset and overshadowed by the pleasure that arose with it. After that moment, Hiyori would never be the same.

With Konata's aid, the young artist became a woman.

Tamura opened her eyes and stared longingly into Konata's. The two sat atop their knees on Konata's bed. Both of Hiyori's arms were wrapped around Izumi's waist The otaku's left hand was wrapped around the other's waist as well, but her _right_ hand, the very hand that had just committed the life-altering act, was still nestled between her lover's legs, inserted and wrapped in warmth.

Konata leaned forward and pecked Hiyori on the lips before asking in a soft whisper "How was it?"

"… Beyond words," the artist whispered back. She then looked down and quickly gasped at the stain she had just created on Konata's bed. "K-Kona-chan, the sheets! I'm sorry-"

"Don't worry about it," Izumi reassured her. "They were old crappy sheets anyway. I'll throw them out when you leave."

Hiyori tightened her grip of Konata and entered into a passionate kiss, a kiss which Izumi equally returned. When their contact finally broke, the artist rested her head against Konata's left shoulder. "I love you, Kona-chan, sooo much," she whispered.

"I love you too," she said back. "… So, when are you going to do the same for _me_?"

"… How about right _now_?"

-o0o-

Unbeknownst to the otaku and artist, the exact same thing was occurring between another couple: _sisters_, to be exact.

Much to Kagami's surprise, Tsukasa had managed to stifle her screams when the event happened. The same couldn't be said for her sister though. When it happened for _her_, Tsukasa was forced to cover Kagami's mouth with her other hand, as to not alert the entire _neighborhood_ of their actions. But when all was said and done, the two shared a blissful silent moment together, warmed in the embrace they gave each other atop Kagami's bed.

"… I can't believe I did that," Tsukasa whispered.

"… I can't believe _we_ did that," Kagami replied as she ran her finger through her sister's short hair.

"Do you think we should tell Mom and Dad?" Tsukasa then asked.

"… Not yet," Kagami replied. "Maybe later, but not now. We should wait at least until _after_ the holidays." As the twin-tailed girl continued to cradle her sister against her, she gave thanks from within her thoughts.

"_Thank you, Hiyori. For **everything**, thank you…_"


End file.
